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(Bcrmanic  Xiterature  anfc  Culture 

A   SERIES  OF  MONOGRAPHS 
Edited  by  JULIUS   GOEBEL,   Pn.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF   GERMANIC   LANGUAGES  IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   ILLINOIS 


MADAME  DE  STAEL 

AND  THE  SPREAD  OF 

GERMAN  LITERATURE 


BY 

EMMA  GERTRUDE  JAECK,  PH.D. 


NEW  YORK 
OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

AMERICAN  BRANCH:   *">   West  32nd  Streft 

LONDON,  TORONTO,   MELBOURNE,  AND  BOMBAY 
HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

1915 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


r 


Copyright,  1Q15 

by  Oxford  University  Press 

american  branch 


PREFACE 

Ever  since  the  French  Revolution  the  name  of  Anne 
Germaine  Necker,  Baronne  de  Stael-Holstein  (1766-1817), 
has  been  known  to  students  of  history  and  literature.  From 
time  to  time  sketches  of  her  life  and  writings  have  ap- 
peared in  magazines,  memoirs,  and  books,  but  no  really 
adequate  and  extended  treatment  of  the  genius  of  this  great 
Frenchwoman  was  offered  to  the  public  until  Dr.  Abel 
Stevens,  an  American  scholar,  published  his  Madame  de 
Stael;  a  Study  of  her  Life  and  Times,  the  First  Revolution 
and  the  First  Empire,  2  vols.,  New  York,  1881.  His  ap- 
preciative narrative  was  followed  soon  after  by  Lady  Blen- 
nerhassett's  extensive  and  critical  work  in  three  volumes, 
Frau  von  Stael,  ihre  Freunde  und  ihre  Bedeutung  in  Politik 
und  Liter  atur,  Berlin,  1887-89.  This  monumental  work, 
so  suggestive  in  its  material,  was  soon  translated  into  French 
and  English,  and  widely  read  and  reviewed.  It  opened  up 
a  new  field  of  discussion  to  scholars.  A  Madame  de  Stael 
revival  was  inaugurated.  Since  1890  have  appeared  various 
critical  works  dealing  with  one  phase  or  another  of  her 
life  and  writings.  All  testify  to  the  genius  of  this  extraor- 
dinary woman  and  especially  to  the  influence  of  her  De 
I'Allemagne.  The  year  1913  marked  the  one-hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  appearance  of  this  book.  But  though  a 
century  has  passed,  the  work  has  a  peculiar  significance 
to-day,  exhibiting,  as  it  does,  the  dominant  traits  of  German 
genius  and  culture.  The  Germany  of  the  present  is  the 
product  of  the  spirit  of  her  great  poets  and  thinkers,  and 


VI 


Preface 


the  prophecy  of  Madame  de  Stael,  that  the  independence 
of  the  German  mind,  which  she  saw  represented  by  Prussia, 
"  the  country  of  thought,"  would  lay  the  foundation  of  the 
political  independence  of  the  German  nation,  has  been 
fulfilled. 

In  the  preface  to  her  Germany  from  1760  to  1814,  a 
series  of  sketches  on  German  life  and  history,  Mrs.  Austin 
excuses  a  multiplicity  of  quotations  on  the  pretext  that  she 
has  secured  herself  behind  their  welcome  defense.  "  It  is," 
she  adds,  "  very  probable  that  by  putting  all  these  bits  of 
ore  into  the  crucible,  and  casting  them  into  one  symmetrical 
mold,  I  might  have  made  a  more  readable  book,  and  one 
which  I  might  with  justice  call  my  own.  But  I  have  an 
unconquerable  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  genuine  and  au- 
thentic. I  have  no  ambition  to  call  original  what  must  in 
fact  be  borrowed."  I  must  plead  the  same  excuse  in  justi- 
fication of  numerous  quotations,  the  more  necessary  as 
many  of  the  books  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  work 
are  out  of  print  and  inaccessible  to  the  ordinary  reader. 

The  following  treatise  was  undertaken  at  the  suggestion 
of  Professor  Julius  Goebel,  Head  of  the  Department  of 
Germanic  Languages  of  the  State  University  of  Illinois.  To 
him  the  writer  is  greatly  indebted  for  generous  help  and 
advice,  as  also  to  Professors  O.  E.  Lessing  and  T.  E.  Oliver, 
to  Drs.  Josef  Wiehr,  Margaret  Bailey,  and  Alexander 
Green,  and  to  Marie  Goebel-Kimball,  for  their  encouraging 
interest  and  stimulating  criticism.  She  also  desires  to 
express  her  gratitude  to  the  custodians  of  the  Library  of  the 
University  of  Illinois,  of  the  Chicago  Public  Library,  and 
especially,  of  the  Library  of  Congress  for  their  courtesy  in 
assisting  her  to  find  the  requisite  material  for  this  work. 

E.  G.  J. 


CONTENTS 

PART  ONE 
MADAME  DE  STAEL'S   "DE  L'ALLEMAGNE" 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface  v 

I.  Introduction 3 

Knowledge  of  German  Literature  in  France, 
England,  and  America  at  the  close  of  the 
Eighteenth   Century. 
II.     Mme.  de  Stall's  Interest  in  German  Litera- 
ture         26 

a.  Her  knowledge  of  German  before  1803. 

b.  Early  works  and  Germany. 

c.  Visits  to  Germany:  1803-04,  1807-08. 

III.  "  De  l'Allemagne  "  in  the  Making        .        .      60 

IV.  Classicism  and  Romanticism  in  "  De  l'Alle- 

magne " 77 

V.     Essentials    of    German    Culture    in    "  De 

l'Allemagne  " 91 

PART  TWO 

EFFECT  OF  THE  MESSAGE  OF  "  DE  L'ALLEMAGNE" 
UPON  THE  WORLD 

I.     Germany  and  France 115 

II.  German  Literature  in  the  English-Speak- 

ing Lands 141 

a.  England. 

b.  America. 

III.     Conclusion 343 

Index 347 


PART  I 
MADAME  DE  STAEL'S  DE  L'ALLEMAGNE 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

Knowledge  of  German  Literature  in  France,  Eng- 
land, and  America  at  the  Close  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century 

"  The  sciences  have  always  owed  their  origin  to  some 
great  spirit.  Smith  created  political  economy ;  Linnaeus,  bot- 
any ;  Lavoisier,  chemistry ;  and  Mme.  de  Stael  has,  in  like 
manner,  created  the  art  of  analyzing  the  spirit  of  nations  and 
the  springs  which  move  them."  *  This  task  she  accom- 
plished by  her  De  VAllemagne  (1810-13),  through  which 
German  literature  became  an  active  force  in  the  world. 

Before  discussing  the  merits  of  this  work,  it  may  be 
wise  to  consider  first  of  all  the  true  status  of  German 
literature  when  this  book  made  its  appearance. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Germany 
was  a  country  without  a  national  literature.  Renowned 
for  its  discoveries  and  inventions,  admired  for  its  power 
of  abstract  speculation  and  of  concentrated,  detailed  knowl- 
edge, hailed  as  a  force  in  unfettered  theological  discussion, 
it  was  nevertheless  regarded,  in  Pere  Bouhours'  words,  as 
deficient  in  "  esprit."  This  criticism  was  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent fitting,  as  long  as  pedants  of  the  type  of  Gottsched  ruled 
supreme  and  literature  was  lacking  in  "  the  true  and  higher 
standard  of  life."  This  exalted  criterion  came,  according 
to  Goethe,2  with  Frederick  the  Great  and  his  heroic  deeds 
during  the  Seven  Years'  War.     But  though  this  monarch 

1  Blackw.,  IV,  p.  278,  Dec,  1818. 
■  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  bk.  vii. 

3 


4  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

raised  Germany's  dominant  principality,  Prussia,  to  po- 
litical power  in  Europe,  he  yet  remained  a  Frenchman  in 
his  tastes.1  The  conventional  language  of  his  court  was 
still  French;  his  own  literary  work  was  written  in  that 
tongue,  and  through  his  association  with  Voltaire  and  other 
Frenchmen  of  letters  he  tried  to  transform  the  native  Ger- 
manic stock  into  a  French  cultural  power.  What  was  true 
of  the  Prussian  court  was  true  also  of  the  courts  of  the 
lesser  states,  with  the  result  that  the  vernacular  language 
was  restricted  to  the  intercourse  of  common  everyday  life, 
while  in  polite  literature 2  the  French  language  reigned 
without  a  rival. 

Gradually,  however,  a  revolution  in  taste  and  ideas  took 
place  in  Germany.  The  nation's  inherent  love  for  the 
mother  tongue  began  to  assert  itself;  a  new  conception 
of  man  and  his  destiny  arose ;  individual  development 
opposed  universal  mediocrity ;  imagination  and  sensibility 
chafed  at  the  restraints  of  convention,  of  reason  and  "  bon 
gout,"  and  maintained  their  right  to  traverse  the  realms  of 
infinity ;  a  Lessing,  Klopstock,  Herder,  Goethe,  and  Schiller 
brushed  aside  the  prevalent  imitation  of  the  French  and 
asserted  the  grand  inherent  qualities  of  German  nation- 
ality. Then  was  born  a  national  literature,  rich,  bold,  and 
original ;  a  literature  so  different  in  style  and  thought 
from  the  polite  literature  of  France  and  England  as  to 
shock  the  advocates  of  reason  and  good  taste.  They  could 
not  understand  its  singular  enthusiasm,  its  fearless  specu- 
lations, and  its  exaggeration,  hence  they  could  not  appre- 
ciate it.  Consequently  this  new  national  literature,  instead 
of  cementing  a  bond  of  mutual  helpfulness  between  Ger- 
many and  the  other  European  countries,  but  served  to  widen 

1  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  xvi :  La  Prusse. 

2  Cf.  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  chap.  ix. 


Introduction  5 

the  chasm  of  prejudice  until  it  became  a  gulf  of  contempt 
for  Germany  and  all  things  German. 

Various  attempts  are  on  record  to  alter  this  misconcep- 
tion of  Germany.  Thus  among  the  first,  Friedrich  Melchior 
Grimm  (Baron  de  Grimm),  a  German  who  had  settled  in 
Paris,  wrote  two  letters  in  the  Mercure  de  France  (Oct. 
1750  and  Feb.  1751 ),  giving  an  outline  of  German  literary 
history  in  five  periods  of  development,  the  first  of  its  kind 
in  France.1  This  was  followed  by  similar  ventures  on  the 
part  of  the  Germans.  An  international  magazine  was  soon 
founded,  the  Journal  Hranger,  having  as  its  object  the 
dissemination  of  international  culture.  The  first  native 
Frenchman  to  note  the  wealth  of  German  literature  was 
Boulenger  de  Rivery,  who  published  in  1754  his  Fables  et 
Contes,  in  avowed  imitation  of  Gellert.2  Rivery 's  work 
attracted  serious  attention  to  German  literature  and  trans- 
lations of  German  works  followed,  with  reviews  and  dis- 
cussions.3 Gessner,  Wieland,  Lessing,  and  several  minor 
writers  thus  became  known  in  translation.  By  1768  this 
new  Germanic  spirit  was  felt  so  strongly  that  Dorat  ex- 
claimed in  dismay:  "O  Germania,  our  day  of  fortune  has 
passed  away,  thine  is  now  dawning.  Thou  enclosest  in 
thy  bosom  all  that  which  exalts  one   nation  above  other 

1  Siipfle :  Zeitsch.  fiir  vergl.  Lit.-Gesch.,  new  ser.,  I,  pp.  223-24, 
1887-88. 

In  reference  to  the  hopes  in  the  new  poetic  life  as  represented 
by  Gellert,  Hagedorn,  and  Haller,  Grimm  adds :  "  Thus  about  thirty 
years  ago  Germany  became  an  aviary  of  songsters,  that  are  only 
waiting  for  an  opportune  season  to  sing.  Perhaps  this  glorious  time 
for  the  muses  of  my  country  is  not  far  distant." 

*  He  declared :  "  It  is  time  for  us  to  study  not  only  the  science, 
but  the  literature  of  the  Germans,  and  to  abandon  the  prejudice 
that  they  lack  grace  of  expression." — Ibid.,  p.  230. 

3  Siipfle :  Gesch.  des  deut.  Kultureinflusses  auf  Frankreich,  2  vols. 
Gotha,  1880-90. 


6  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

nations,  and  our  disdainful  frivolity  is  forced  to  render 
homage  to  the  great  men  whom  thou  producest !  "  x  The 
wave  of  German  influence,  however,  reached  its  height 
with  the  appearance  of  Goethe's  Wert  her,  translated  1776, 
a  work  which  came  into  universal  favor  in  France.2 
Napoleon  carried  it  with  him  in  his  Egyptian  campaign, 
and  later  declared  that  he  had  read  it  seven  times.3 

Then  followed  the  turbulent  times  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. Its  early  excesses  forced  many  of  the  wealthy  and 
literary  classes  to  seek  safety  in  exile.  These  "  Emi- 
grants "  became  an  effective  power  in  spreading  the 
knowledge  of  other  lands  among  their  own  countrymen. 
They  studied  foreign  languages  and  literatures,  wrote 
articles  about  them,  made  translations  of  standard  works, 
and  founded  international  magazines  for  the  discussion  of 
cultural  questions.4 

Despite  this  apparent  interest  in  Germany  and  its  litera- 
ture, however,  a  real  understanding  of  its  worth  was  pre- 
vented by  the  great  temperamental  difference  between  the 
Gallic   and    Teutonic    races.5      This    fact    Mme.    de    Stael 

1  Idee  de  la  Poesie  allemande,  p.  133.  Cf.  Texte :  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau  et  les  Origines  de  cosmop.  Litt.    Cf.  Siipfle,  I,  p.  219. 

2  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  VIII,  pp.  207-08,  1887. 

Siipfle  says :  "  It  became  the  favorite  book  of  the  French ;  it 
found  a  second  home  with  them.  The  readers  shed  tears  over  it, 
they  raved,  wrote,  philosophized,  they  even  preached  on  it.  For 
fully  fifty  years  it  was  imitated  in  every  variety  of  tune;  for  almost 
a  hundred  years  it  was  the  popular  subject  of  numerous  translations." 

3  J.  W.  Appell :  Werther  und  seine  Zeit,  Oldenburg,  1896,  p.  48. 
Cf.  F.  Baldensperger :  Goethe  en  France,  Paris,  1904. 

Cf.  Virgile  Rossel :  Histoire  des  relations  litteraires  entre  la 
France  et  l'Allemagne,  Paris,  1897. 

4  Cf.  G.  Brandes :  Hauptstrotnungen,  I :  Die  Emigrantenliteratur. 
8  Cf.   Humboldt's  letter  to  Goethe   from   Paris,   1800.     Cf.    Lady 

Blennerhassett,  II,  p.  457.  Cf.  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  pt.  i :  Observations 
generales,  and  pt.  ii,  chap.  i. 

Cf.  a  similar  statement  by  Charles  de  Villers :  "  Upon  the  small 


Introduction  7 

most  clearly  recognized  in  the  introduction  to  her  De  la 
Litterature  ;  anticipating  Taine's  theory  of  race,  milieu, 
and  moment,  she  declared  that  the  political  and  religious 
institutions  of  the  various  lands  exerted  a  decisive  influ- 
ence in  the  production  of  the  continual  diversities  observ- 
able in  their  literatures.  This  lack  of  appreciation  for 
German  literature  was  accompanied,  moreover,  by  a  cor- 
responding dearth  of  good  contemporary  French  litera- 
ture.1 In  addition  to  the  general  literary  decline,  France 
was  surrounded  by  a  triple  wall  of  vanity,  self-interest, 
and  national  prejudice.  The  glory  of  her  arms  abroad 
had  beguiled  the  nation  into  a  conceited  sense  of  supe- 
riority that  was  destructive  to  real  progress.  Such  was 
the  outlook  there  when  Mme.  de  StaeTs  book  appeared  in 
1813.  Of  its  influence  A.  R.  Staaff  writes:  "In  revealing 
literary  and  philosophical  Germany  to  France,  Mme.  de 
Stael  accomplished  one  of  those  great  international  mis- 
sions which  leave  ineffaceable  prints  upon  the  history  of 
civilization."  2 


surface  of  our  little  Europe,  nature,  in  one  of  her  caprices,  has 
taken  pleasure  in  bringing  together  by  the  boundaries  of  their  terri- 
tory two  nations,  which  she  has  placed  by  their  genius  and  char- 
acter at  the  two  extremities  of  the  intellectual  line  which  it  is  given 
to  man  to  traverse.  These  are  the  French  and  the  Germans. 
Though  some  shades  of  resemblance  are  common  to  both  in  the 
present  modification  of  the  European  character,  they  offer  in  their 
general  ideas  and  the  views  which  they  take  of  life  such  contradic- 
tions and  such  total  opposition,  that  it  appears  as  if  all  means  of 
understanding  one  another  were  impracticable,  and  all  efforts  to 
do  so  superfluous."    Cf.  N.  Amer.  R.,  I,  p.  13,  July,  1833. 

1  Cf.  De  la  Litterature,  pt.  ii,  chap,  v,  p.  313. 

Cf.  De  I'Allemagne,  II,  pt.  i,  p.  7. 

Cf.  preface  to  Delphine,  CEuvres  completes,  I,  p.  336. 

Cf.  P.  Albert :  La  Litterature  francaise  an  XIXe  Steele,  7th  ed., 
I,  p.  226. 

3  La  Litterature  franqaise,  Paris,  1875,  5th  ed.,  II,  p.  165. 


8  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

What  has  been  said  in  regard  to  the  French  lack  of 
comprehension  for  German  literature  is  true  in  great 
measure  of  the  English,  for,  even  though  England  dis- 
claimed any  inferiority,1  France  at  this  time  set  the  fashion 
for  the  whole  of  Europe  in  literary  taste  and  criticism,  as 
well  as  in  dress  and  furniture.  As  early  as  1801  the 
British  poet,  William  Sotheby,  sounded  a  note  of  warn- 
ing to  his  countrymen  against  the  baneful  effects  of  French 
culture.2  One  good  feature  of  this  otherwise  objectionable 
influence  was,  however,  the  introduction  of  French  trans- 
lations and  imitations  of  German  works.  In  speaking  of 
the  spread  of  German  culture  into  Great  Britain,  Professor 
Alois  Brandl  writes :  "  Up  to  the  appearance  of  the  Sor- 
rows of  Werther,  German  had  only  been  learned  for  com- 
mercial purposes,  as  some  people  learn  Persian  now- 
adays." 3     It  was  with  the  French  version  of  this  early 

1  The  American  Review  (Walsh),  Jan.,  181 1,  I,  p.  145. 

2  Cf.  Brit.  Critic,  XVIII,  pp.  78-81,  1801.  Poem  by  Wm.  Sotheby, 
entitled  Epistle  to  Sir  George  Beaumont  on  the  Encouragement 
of  the  British  School  of  Painting. 

Cf.  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ix,  p.  83. 

Cf.  Prince  Puckler-Muskau :  Tour  in  Germany,  Holland,  and 
England  in  the  Years  1826,  1827,  and  1828,  in  a  Series  of  Letters  by 
a  German  Prince.    4  vols.    London,  1832. 

Cf.  N.  Amer.  R.,  XXXVI,  pp.  3-5,  Jan.,  1833. 

3  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  and  the  English  Romantic  School, 
London,  1887,  pp.  122-23. 

Cf.  Edinb.  R.,  XXII,  p.  168  (Sir  Jas.  Mackintosh)  :  "  Thirty  years 
ago  there  were  probably  in  London  as  many  Persian  as  German 
scholars."     (1813.) 

Cf.  Macaulay:  Essay  on  Addison,  July,  1843;  Works,  VII,  p.  65: 
"  Very  few,  we  suspect,  of  the  accomplished  men  who,  sixty  or 
seventy  years  ago,  used  to  dine  in  Leicester  Square  with  Sir  Joshua, 
or  at  Streatham  with  Mrs.  Thrale,  had  the  slightest  notion  that 
Wieland  was  one  of  the  first  wits  and  poets,  and  Lessing,  beyond 
all  dispute,  the  first  critic  in  Europe." 

Cf.  Ger.  Amer.  Annals,  new  ser.,  Ill,  Nos.  3-4. 

Cf.  Goethe:  Epigramme  aus  Venedig,  No.  35. 


Introduction  9 

masterpiece  of  Goethe  that  interest  began  to  be  aroused  in 
England  in  the  permanent  values  of  German  literature.1 

Werther  itself  did  not  find  a  welcome  reception.  In 
reviewing  an  imitative  poem  entitled  Werther  to  Charlotte, 
the  Monthly  Review,  of  London,  June  1785  makes  the 
following  comment:  "The  subject  of  this  poem  is  taken 
from  the  Sorrows  of  Werther,  a  sentimental  novel,2  which 
though  not  ill  written,  would  probably  have  been  little 
read,  had  it  inculcated  any  valuable  moral.  To  its  per- 
nicious tendency  it  is,  perhaps,  indebted  for  a  greater  por- 
tion of  its  celebrity."  3 

Through  the  efforts  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Matthew  G. 
Lewis,  Samuel  T.  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  Southey, 
William  Taylor  of  Norwich,  and  others,  however,  public 
opinion  in  England  gradually  turned  more  favorable,  and 
Scott  could  allude  to  Goethe  in  the  preface  to  his  transla- 
tion of  Gbtz,  1799,  as  "  the  elegant  author  of  the  Sorrows 
of  Werther."  4  Similarly  in  1801  the  British  Critic,  despite 
a  disagreement  as  to  basic  principles,  declared,  "We  are, 
nevertheless,  not  reluctant  to  acknowledge  his  [Goethe's] 
claims  to  great  abilities,  and  in  the  present  instance  confess 
that  he  has  produced  a  simple  and  interesting  story,  which 

1  It  is  curious  that  up  to  1785  the  authorship  of  Werther  was 
ascribed  to  Wieland,  probably  because,  in  Mme.  de  Stael's  words, 
he  was  the  only  German  author  who  wrote  in  the  French  manner 
and  whose  works  still  showed  genius.  (De  I'Allemagne,  I,  pt.  ii, 
chap,  iv,  p.  158.  Cf.  H.  C.  Robinson's  Diary,  Reminiscences,  and 
Correspondence,  London,  1869,  I,  p.  182.)  Furthermore,  Wieland 
had  been  influenced  by  Sterne,  another  factor  that  made  him 
acceptable  to  English  taste.  Der  gepriifte  Abraham  was  translated 
in  1764;  Nachlass  des  Diogenes  von  Sinope,  1771 ;  Agathon  and  Don 
Sylvio  von  Rosalva,  1773. 

2  Note  to  the  article :  "  Said  to  have  been  written  by  Wieland,  a 
German  writer  of  excellent  abilities." 

3  LXXII,  p.  468. 

4  Appell,  p.  10. 


io  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

many  will  read  with  delight;  particularly  those  who  pre- 
fer the  unvarnished  incidents  of  humble  and  domestic  life 
to  the  more  elevated  and  gaudy  scenes,  where  the  imagina- 
tion is  constantly  on  the  rack  to  produce  characters  and 
circumstances  far  above  the  reach  of  human  manner? 
existing  only  in  the  rapturous  visions  of  poetic  fancy. 

The  first  knowledge  of  Goethe's  dramas  came  in  ... 
manner  through  the  medium  of  French  redactions.  In 
1782-85  appeared  the  Nouveau  Theatre  allemand  (12 
vols.),  a  compilation  of  the  best  German  plays,  translated 
into  French  by  Friedel  and  De  Bonneville.2  This  was 
read  by  the  Scotchman,  Henry  Mackenzie,  the  author  of 
the  Man  of  Feeling  and  the  Man  of  the  World.  Inspired 
even  by  this  imperfect  translation,  he  gave  an  enthusiastic 
paper,  entitled  An  Account  of  the  German  Theatre,  be- 
fore the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  April  21,  1788.  This 
memoir  the  critic  of  the  Monthly  Review  declared  to  be 
worthy  of  being  "  read  with  satisfaction  by  the  lovers  of 
light  literature." 3  Mackenzie's  review  was  widely  read 
and  discussed ;  attention  for  German  literature,  heretofore 
sporadic  and  individual,  became  general.4  An  enthusiasm 
for  German  literature  followed,  which  was  fostered  by 
the  existing  political  conditions  in  France.  In  proportion 
as  the  Revolution  hindered  English  intercourse  with 
France,  it  helped  communication  with  Germany.  '  The 
French  Revolution,"  says  a  writer,  "  having  hermetically 

1  VIII,  p.  591. 

3  Siipfle,  II,  p.  11. 

8  1st  ser.,  LXXXV;  2nd  ser.,  IV,  pp.  415-16,  Apr.,  1791. 

Cf.  Brandl:  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  III,  p.  39,  1882. 

*  Cf.  Isaac  Disraeli :  Curiosities  of  Literature,  1791 ;  Amer.  re- 
print of  the  14th  London  ed.,  New  York,  1871,  II,  pp.  73-76: 
Literary  Dutch.  This  article  confuses  the  terms  Dutch  and 
German  and  insinuates  that  this  literature  contains  "  no  works 
above  mediocrity." 


Introduction  i  i 

sealed  the  three  Gauls  against  the  English,  the  travels  and 
literary  researches  of  our  countrymen  were  in  a  manner 
forced  into  Germany  and  made  us  better  acquainted  with 
her  literature."  1 

position  to  this  influence  began  to  assert  itself  almost 
diately.  Of  the  various  reasons  for  it  none  is  more 
..icresting  than  the  argument  implied  that  German  litera- 
ture might  endanger  the  literary  autonomy  of  Old  Eng- 
land.2 In  1809  the  Quarterly  Review,  a  magazine  always 
rather  antagonistic  to  German  literature,  in  a  review  of 
Curran's  speeches,  makes  this  characteristic  comment : 
'  The  whole  of  his  speeches  are  framed  on  the  model  of 
the  German  school,  where  nature  is  pushed  beyond  her- 
self. His  sentences,  though  often  very  striking,  are  sel- 
dom natural.  They  have  also  a  propensity  to  find  their 
termination  in  a  clinch,  a  point  or  antithesis ;  in  something 
calculated  to  excite  that  species  of  wonder  which  has  no 
manner  of  alliance  with  pleasure."  3  And  the  very  next 
year  the  author  of  a  biographical  sketch  of  Thomas  Camp- 
bell declares :  '  The  English  are  in  literature  what  the 
Israelites  of  yore  were  in  religion,  a  wayward,  erring  race, 
ever  ready  to  stray  from  the  paths  of  truth  and  follow 
after  strange  idols  and  monstrous  doctrines  ...  no  nation 
is  more  prone  to  turn  from  this  wholesome  aliment  of  the 
mind,  this  manna  sent  down  from  heaven,  and  languish 
after  foreign  and  pernicious  crudities."  * 

But  in  fact  this  lack  of  mutual   understanding  between 
the  German  and  the  Englishman,  was  due  largely  to  the 

1  Monthly  Review,  3rd   ser.,  VI,  p.  262;   old   ser.,   CXCV ;  Oct., 
1827:  History  of  German  Literature. 

2  Grenzboten,  I,  p.   189,  1869. 
8 1,  p.  93,  Feb. 

*  Poetical  Works  of  Thos.  Campbell,  Baltimore,  1810,  p.  xix  ff. 
Cf.  Zeiger :  Studien  zur  vergl.  Lit.-Gcsch.,  I,  pp.  242-43. 


12  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

essential  differences  in  their  character  and  education. 
Henry  Crabb  Robinson  writes  in  1836  to  the  German  phi- 
losopher, Friedrich  Benecke :  "  The  result  of  your  various 
remarks  on  our  English  theologians  is  the  renewal  of  a 
very  old  impression  of  the  inherent  and  essential  diversity 
of  our  English  and  your  German  modes  of  contemplating 
the  great  matters  of  religious  philosophy.  ...  I  do  not  at 
all  wonder  that  you  do  not  relish  any  of  our  writers,  even 
of  the  highest  reputation.  It  is  ascribable  to  the  same 
cause  that  renders  the  great  masters  of  German  thought 
unenjoyable  by  English  readers."  And  he  continues  later, 
'  To  return  to  the  great  difference  between  our  English 
and  your  German  habits  of  thought.  I  am  most  deeply 
impressed  with  the  conviction,  that  your  profound  thinkers 
are  beyond  the  comprehension  of  us,  because  the  thinking 
faculty  is  left  with  us  in  a  half  uncultivated  state.  What- 
ever lies  deeper  than  ordinary  logic  is  out  of  our  reach. 
Where  we  even  concur  in  the  result,  the  intellectual  process 
is  very  different.  And  I  never  meet  with  a  German  book 
of  the  highest  order  in  which  I  do  not  find  a  something 
at  which  I  stand  at  a  loss — a  thought  I  cannot  be  sure  I 
thoroughly  comprehend.  It  was  so  in  the  study  of  your 
preface,  in  which  there  was  at  the  same  time  so  much  that 
I  heartily  relished  because  I  fancied  I  understood  it." x 
And  if  Robinson  with  his  knowledge  of  the  German  life, 
language,  and  literature  had  difficulty  in  interpreting  the 
German  meaning,  surely  one  can  be  lenient  toward  minds 
of  inferior  caliber,  if  they  totally  misunderstood  the  ideas 
which  a  German  author  intended  to  convey  to  his  readers.2 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  gap  between  German 
and  English  was  not  so  great  as  between  the  French  and 

1  Diary,  III,  p.  91. 

2  Cf.  Emerson:   English  Traits,  chap,  xiv:   Literature. 


Introduction  13 

the  Germans.  This  was  naturally  due  to  the  larger  Teu- 
tonic element  in  the  English  character.  Says  the  London 
Quarterly  Review  of  1814:  "More  active  and  more  ener- 
getic than  the  one,  more  studious  and  contemplative  than 
the  other,  England  may  be  said  to  form  an  intermediate 
link  in  the  chain  of  which  France  and  Germany  are  ex- 
tremities." 1 

If  this  newly  awakened  interest  in  German  literature 
had  been  fostered  by  translations  of  the  best  productions, 
it  would  undoubtedly  have  suffered  no  interruption  in  its 
constant  growth ;  unfortunately,  however,  it  was  the  senti- 
mental dramas  of  Kotzebue  and  Iffland  that  found  special 
and  sensational  favor  on  the  English  stage.  Even  as  late 
as  1821  the  Monthly  Review  declared:  "It  will  probably 
be  admitted  that  Kotzebue  is  the  greatest  dramatist  of  the 
Germans  and  one  of  the  ornaments  of  Europe."2 

A  reaction  against  this  very  mediocre  playwright  un- 
fortunately included  the  whole  of  German  literature.  The 
bitter  feeling  of  the  dissatisfaction  found  expression  in 
the  Anti-Jacobin  or  Weekly  Examiner,  a  magazine 
founded  November  1797,  to  combat  liberalism  in  politics 
and  literature  and  to  oppose  the  "  pernicious  individual- 
ism "  of  the  German  Romantic  School  as  compared  with 
classic  French  and  English  ideals.  In  1802  an  Irish  poet, 
William  Preston,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy  declaimed  loudly  against  the  style  of  Kotzebue, 
Goethe,  and  Schiller,  and  curiously  blamed  Goethe  as  the 
source  of  all  evil.  '  The  peculiarities,"  he  said,  "  which 
Goethe  united  with  his  great  name  and  poetic  rank,  have 

1  X,  p.  355,  Jan.    Cf.  Mme.  de  Stael's  words  to  Robinson :  Diary, 

I,  P-  175- 

Cf.  Carl  Follen's  Works,  V,  p.  150,  Boston,  1841-42. 

2  XCV,  p.  460.     Cf.  Follen,  V,  pp.  130-31. 


14  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

done  great  injury  to  the  German  taste.  Goethe  can  be 
especially  called  the  dramatic  father  of  Schiller  and  the 
great  patriarch  of  the  school  of  terror  and  ferocity.  One 
can  say  that  the  cannibalism  of  the  theater,  the  rule  of 
terror  and  blood,  was  established  in  the  drama  by  his 
Goss  (sic!)  with  the  iron  hand."1 

Then  came  the  Napoleonic  era  with  its  concomitant  ces- 
sation of  easy  communication  between  the  island  and  the 
Continent, — and  brought  with  it  an  almost  complete  de- 
struction of  all  interest  in  German  literature.  In  Car- 
lyle's  vigorous  language,  "  after  a  period  of  not  too  ju- 
dicious cordiality,  the  acquaintance  on  our  part  was  wholly 
dropped."  2  This,  then,  was  the  status  of  German  litera- 
ture in  England  when  Mme.  de  Stael  succeeded  (1813) 
in  having  printed  her  famous  book,  De  l'Allemagne, 
"  from  whose  pages,"  says  the  English  essayist  Greg,  "  we 
first  imbibed  a  longing  to  make  the  riches  of  that  mighty 
literature  our  own."  3 

The  condition  of  German  literature  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  a  country  naturally  subject  to  both 
French  and  English  influence  by  reason  of  its  geographical 
and  political  relations,  bears  striking  resemblance  to  the 
early  condition  in  France  and  England ;  German  literature 
was  unknown.  Before  the  American  Revolution,  educa- 
tion and  literature  were  English  in  spirit  and  tradition,  for 
the  colonies  naturally  followed  the  leadership  of  the 
mother-country.  Inasmuch  as  French  influence  was  pre- 
dominant in  England  and  a  knowledge  of  the  French 
language  was  regarded  essential  to  a  "  finished  "  education, 
those  Americans  who  went  abroad  or  followed  the  English 

1  Brandl :  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  III,  p.  59. 

~  Preface  to  the  translation  of  Wilhelm  Meisters  Lehrjahre,  1824. 

8  N.  Brit.  R„  XX,  p.  1,  Nov.,  1853- 


Introduction  15 

fashion,  learned  French  also.  In  an  address  before  the 
Modern  Language  Association  (1890)1  James  Russell 
Lowell  said :  "  For  nearly  two  hundred  years  no  modern 
language  was  continuously  and  systematically  taught  here. 
In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  a  stray  Frenchman 
was  caught  now  and  then  and  kept  as  long  as  he  could  en- 
dure the  baiting  of  his  pupils.  After  failing  as  a  teacher 
of  his  mother-tongue,  he  commonly  turned  dancing-mas- 
ter, a  calling  which  public  opinion  seems  to  have  put  on 
the  same  intellectual  level  with  the  other."  2 

During  the  war  the  assistance  of  France  brought  us  into 
nearer  relations  with  that  country,  and  the  presence  of 
many  distinguished  foreigners  as  Lafayette,  Ouesnay, 
Chastellux,  Talleyrand,  Montmorency,  Vanderbourg,  and 
Rochefoucauld  strengthened  the  bond  of  interest  and 
friendship.  Likewise,  our  American  diplomats  abroad, 
Jefferson,  Franklin.  J.  Q.  Adams,  Livingston,  Monroe, 
Chas.  Pinckney,  and  Gouverneur  Morris,  brought  back  for- 
eign, and  especially  French  ideas.  In  Randall's  Life  of 
Jefferson 3  one  finds  numerous  instances  of  Jefferson's 
predilection  for  French  culture.  Versed  in  the  Greek, 
Latin,  French,  Spanish,  and  Italian  languages,  he  knew  all 
the  masterpieces  in  those  literatures  as  well  as  in  the 
English.4 

When  the  Chevalier  Ouesnay  de  Beailrepaire  formed  the 
plan  of  establishing  a  "  French  Academy  of  the  Arts  and 

1  Publications,  V,  p.  5. 

2 1,  PP-  394-95.  Boston,  i860.  Cf.  Hinsdale:  Report  of  Comr.  of 
Educ,  I,  p.  599,  1897-98.  In  his  History  of  Harvard  University 
Josiah  Quincy  records  that  in  1735  a  Frenchman  was  engaged  to 
teach  his  native  language  at  Harvard,  but  because  of  heretical  doc- 
trines he  was  soon  dismissed,  whereupon  French  was  dropped  from 
the  university  until  the  period  of  the  Revolution. 

'3  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1871. 

4  I,  pp.  24-25,  390,  437-    Cf.  Ill,  p.  346. 


16  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

.Sciences  "  in  Richmond,  with  branches  in  New  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, and  Baltimore,  and  then  cherished  the  scheme 
"  of  moving  bodily  to  Virginia  the  entire  faculty  of  the 
Swiss  College  of  Geneva,  which  was  thoroughly  French 
in  its  form  of  culture,"  Jefferson  gave  his  hearty  endorse- 
ment to  both  projects.  Luckily  for  America  both  schemes 
failed,  for  their  success  would  have  meant  a  greater  sep- 
aration of  North  and  South.  "  If  French  ideas  had  really 
penetrated  Virginian  society,  they  would  have  become  as 
dominant  in  the  South  as  German  ideas  are  now  becoming 
in  the  state  universities  and  school  systems  of  the  North- 
west." *  Jefferson  was  even  accused  of  unrelenting  hos- 
tility to  England  and  of  correspondingly  strong  prejudices 
in  favor  of  France.2  He  thus  became  known  as  head  of 
the  "  French  party  "  (just  as  Adams  was  considered  leader 
of  the  "English  party")  and  played  a  vital  role  in  the 
introduction  of  French  manners  in  a  movement  of  such 
rapid  extension  that  Jefferson  himself  expressed  his  sur- 
prise in  1790  at  finding  it  "  extended  to  more  serious 
things."  3 

The  immense  influence  exerted  by  France  on  American 
life  and  taste  was  in  great  contrast  to  the  opinion  enter- 
tained in  regard  to  Germans  and  their  literary  culture. 
The  little  known  of  the  people  of  Germany  was  derived 
mostly  from  the  observation  of  the  emigrants  who  came 
to  this  country.  As  citizens,  they  were  well  liked  by  the 
older  American  stock,  because  they  were  peaceable,  in- 
dustrious, and  orderly.4     And  on  the  other  hand,  the  Ger- 

1  Thos.  Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Virginia,  Washington, 
D.  C,  1888. 

Cf.  Viereck :  Report  of  Comr.  of  Educ,  I,  p.  549,  1900-01. 

2  Randall,  II,  p.  59. 

3  Ibid.,  I,  p.  560. 

4Cf.   McMaster,  II,  p.  556.     Cf.  N.  Amer.  R.,  LII,  p.  217  ff. ; 


Introduction  17 

mans  were  delighted  with  the  opportunity  granted  them 
to  live  quietly  and  unmolested  by  grievous  taxes,  arbitrary 
and  despotic  laws,  and  by  slavish  and  abject  vassalage. 
So  they  came  to  America  in  increasing  numbers.  Finally 
the  petty  sovereigns  of  the  German  states  began  to  be 
alarmed  at  the  loss  of  their  subjects  to  the  New  World. 
A  special  ambassador,  Von  Fiirstenwarther,  was  accord- 
ingly sent  to  America  to  inquire  into  the  subject  of  German 
emigration  to  the  United  States,  and  to  present  as  gloomy 
a  picture  as  possible  of  his  investigations.  In  his  work, 
Der  Deutsche  in  Nord  Amerika,1  he  declared  that  though 
personally  the  German  was  esteemed  in  his  new  coun- 
try, like  others,  without  reference  to  descent  or  nation, 
when  he  was  rich  or  distinguished  for  public  services, 
esteemed  moreover  for  his  industry,  frugality,  love  of 
home,  for  his  honesty  and  his  peaceable  temper,  neverthe- 
less, he  could  detect  a  great  undervaluing  of  the  German 
name  and  nation  in  America.  '  The  Americans,  them- 
selves, too  young  to  deserve  the  name  of  nation,  possess 
nevertheless  a  national  pride  beyond  that  of  any  people 
of  the  Old  World,  and  look  down  with  disdain  on  those 
from  whom  the  first  germ  of  their  improvement  came. 
Of  none,  however,  have  the  Americans  a  poorer  opinion 
than  of  the  Germans.  The  main  reason  for  this  is,  per- 
haps, the  political  insignificance  of  the  German  nation,  and 
the  consequent  want  of  conscious  importance  and  of  arro- 
gance of  its  individuals ;  to  which  cause  also  it  is  to  be 
ascribed  that  so  little  justice  is  done  to  the  Germans  by 
the  other  European  nations."  2 

Jan.,  1841  :  The  Irish  in  America;  and  XL,  pp.  466  ff.,  Apr.,  1835: 
Immigration. 

1  1818,  Review  in  N.  Amer.  R.,  XI,  pp.  1-18,  July,  1820. 

a  Pp.  68-69.    Cf.  N.  Amer.  R.,  XI,  pp.  11-12. 


18  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

When  one  remembers  that  the  American  public  had 
seemingly  forgotten  that  Frederick  the  Great  was  the  first 
sovereign  of  Europe  to  acknowledge  the  new  republic, 
that  Baron  von  Steuben,  General  de  Kalb,  and  General 
Nicholas  Herkimer  trained  our  undisciplined  troops,  that 
many  German-Americans  gave  up  their  lives  on  the  battle- 
field, one  cannot  but  confess  that  Von  Furstenwarther  had 
just  cause  to  reproach  the  nation's  ingratitude.  But  too 
often  a  grain  of  ignominy  annihilates  a  pound  of  glory. 
Even  to-day  no  school  child  hears  the  name  of  "  Hessian  " 
without  a  feeling  of  contempt,  little  thinking  that  these 
poor  soldiers  were  virtually  slaves  of  degenerate  petty 
despots,  sold  against  their  will  as  mercenaries  to  England. 

Both  in  England  and  in  America  the  cost  of  printing 
foreign  books  and  the  heavy  import  duties  prevented  the 
circulation  of  foreign  literature.  Before  the  Revolution 
the  commercial  restrictions  imposed  by  England  limited 
the  publishers  to  the  mere  retailing  of  English  books. 
Whatever  printing  was  done  was  confined  mostly  to  issuing 
editions  of  English  works,  which  could  be  done  without 
paying  any  copyright.  In  a  letter  to  Francis  Eppes  April 
9,  1822,  Jefferson  makes  the  following  comment  regarding 
lawbooks:  "They  will  come  twenty-five  per  cent  cheaper 
from  England  than  bought  here,  and  some  indeed  can  only 
be  had  there."  1  Nor  did  he  hesitate  to  have  his  Notes  of 
Virginia  printed  in  France  at  one- fourth  of  the  American 
price.2 

These  hindrances  to  the  dissemination  of  German  litera- 
ture in  America  were  offset,  however,  to  a  certain  degree. 
The  question  of  the  progress  of  German  culture  among 
us  has  been  treated   in   detail  by  L.   Viereck  and   Burke 

1  Randall,  III,  p.  484. 

2  Ibid.,  I,  p.  413. 


Introduction  19 

Hinsdale  in  the  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion l  and  also  by  A.  B.  Faust.2  Their  work  shows  by 
contrast  the  early  preponderance  of  French  ideals,  in 
America  just  as  in  England.3 

To  the  part  played  by  our  diplomats  in  the  diffusion 
of  foreign  ideas  I  have  already  referred,  and  especially 
to  Jefferson's  predilection  for  French  culture.  Another 
diplomat  who  studied  German  was  John  Quincy  Adams. 
In  1800  he  made  a  trip  through  Silesia  and  wrote  his 
observations  in  a  series  of  letters  to  his  brother,  which 
were  afterward  published  in  book  form  under  the  title 
Journey  to  Silesia  (Lond.,  1804;  German  translation,  Bres- 
lau,  1805;  French  translation,  Paris,  1807).  As  a  result  of 
his  interest  in  German  literature  is  recorded  his  translation 
of  Wieland's  Oberon,  which,  however,  was  never  printed, 
for  William  Sotheby's  version  had  just  appeared  (1798). 
So  Adams  contented  himself  by  sending  a  copy  of  his  work 
to  Wieland   for  criticism,   and   the   German   poet   replied, 


1  1900-01,  I,  chap,  xiv,  and  1897-98,  I,  chap.  xiii. 

Cf.  Eugene  Oswald :  Goethe  in  England  and  America,  London, 
1899;  in  Die  neueren  Sprachen,  VII,  pp.  313-47,  404-18,  1899-1900. 

2  The  German  Element  in  the  United  States.  2  vols.  Boston  and 
New  York,  1909. 

8  For  the  discussion  of  German  literature  in  America,  see  Fred- 
erick H.  Wilkens :  Early  Influence  of  German  Literature  in  America, 
Philadelphia,  1899;  Amer.-Ger.,  Ill,  No.  2,  pp.  103-205. 

Edward  Z.  Davis:  Translations  of  Ger.  Poetry  in  Amer.  Maga- 
zines, Philadelphia,  1905. 

Horatio  S.  White :  Goethe  in  America,  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  V,  pp. 
219-56,  1884. 

Ellwood  Parry:  Schiller  in  America,  Philadelphia,  1905;  Amer.- 
Ger.,  VII,  Nos.  3-4. 

Gustav  Korner:  Das  deutsche  Element  in  den  Vereinigten 
Staaten  von  Amerika   (1818-48),  Cincinnati,   1880. 

Leonard  Mackall :  Brief e  zwischen  Goethe  und  Amerikanem, 
Goethe  Jahrbuch,  XXV,  pp.  3-37,  1904. 


20  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

that  though  Sotheby's  translation  was  more  poetic,  Adams's 
was  more  literal. 

With  Adams  in  Russia  was  associated  Alexander  H. 
Everett,  as  private  secretary  (1809-12).  As  German  in- 
fluence was  strong  in  St.  Petersburg,  Everett  had  favor- 
able opportunities  for  becoming  acquainted  with  German 
literature.  His  observations  of  European  life  are  stated 
in  his  Europe  (1822).  Later  he  became  secretary  to  the 
legation  and  then  minister  at  The  Hague  (1815-16, 
1818-24),  and  after  his  return  contributed  many  important 
articles  to  the  North  American  Review,  of  which  he  was 
chief  editor  from  1829  to  1835. 

What  Jefferson  tried  to  do  for  the  spread  of  French  cul- 
ture, Benjamin  Franklin  sought  to  do  for  German  litera- 
ture. As  a  business  man  and  a  resident  of  Philadelphia, 
he  came  in  contact  with  a  numerous  German  element  and 
learned  to  appreciate  the  sturdy  Germanic  qualities.  He 
was  undoubtedly  the  first  American  to  print  German  works 
in  this  country,  publishing  German  hymn-books  (one  as 
early  as  1730),  prayer-books,  text-books,  records,  and  a 
German  catechism.  He  was  likewise  a  journalist,  and 
edited  the  Philadelphia  Zeitung  (1732)  and  another 
newspaper  in  1755.  Through  his  efforts  and  those  of  the 
Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  the  Public  Academy 
of  the  City  of  Philadelphia  was  established  in  1749.  This 
institution  bears  the  renown  of  being  the  first  American 
school  to  have  German  in  its  curriculum.  Five  years  later 
it  became  a  college,  and  after  Franklin's  return  from 
Europe  it  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  university,  and 
is  now  our  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Then,  too,  Frank- 
lin was  the  first  American  to  visit  a  German  university. 
In  the  Gottingen  Anzeiger  of  Sept.  13,  1766,  there  is  a 
record   of    his    attendance    at    the    meeting   of   the    Royal 


Introduction  21 

Society  of  Science  held  the  preceding  July.1  When  in 
1787  a  number  of  German  citizens  decided  to  found  a 
German  College  and  Charity  School  at  Lancaster,  they 
agreed  to  call  it  after  their  benefactor  Franklin  College 
(now  Franklin-Marshall  College).  To  its  endowment 
Franklin  gave  a  thousand  dollars,  a  large  sum  for  those 
days,  and  journeyed  to  Lancaster  to  lay  the  cornerstone 
of  the  new  institution.2 

Despite  the  active  cooperation  of  Franklin  and  the  zeal 
of  a  few  German-Americans,  these  attempts  to  extend 
the  knowledge  of  the  German  language  and  literature  were 
little  short  of  failure.  In  New  England,  where  the  English 
spirit  was  particularly  strong,  the  German  language  was 
practically  unknown,  and  no  facilities  for  acquiring  it  were 
available.  Whatever  knowledge  of  German  literature  was 
current  came  entirely  through  English  and  French  sources, 
in  reprints  of  English  books  or  in  the  periodicals.  Hence 
there  is  found  the  same  general  view  of  Germany  and  its 
literature  as  in  France  and  in  England.  Even  at  Harvard, 
the  center  of  learning  for  the  LTnited  States,  no  instruc- 
tion in  German  was  offered  until  the  advent  of  Dr.  Follen. 
Lowell,  in  referring  to  this  period,  said  in  1890:  "  By  hook 
or  crook  some  enthusiasts  managed  to  learn  German,  but 
there  was  no  official  teacher  before  Doctor  Follen  about 
sixty  years  ago,"  and  adds  in  a  note,  "  Mr.  George  Ban- 
croft told  me  that  he  learned  German  of  Professor  Sydney 
Willard,  who,  himself  self-taught,  had  no  notion  of  its  pro- 
nunciation." 3 

1  Cf.  Hinsdale :  Report,  1897-98,  I,  chap.  xiii. 
'  Cf.  Viereck:  Report,  1900-01,  I,  chap.  xiv. 
Cf.  Faust,  II,  chap.  v. 
8  Pub.  of  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc.,  V,  p.  5. 

Sidney  Willard,   speaking  of  his  own   efforts   in  that  line,   says : 
"  A    German   Jew    by    name   of    Howitz   came    to    Cambridge    and 


22  Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody  gives  the  following  account  of 
the  introduction  of  German  at  Harvard :  "  German  had 
never  been  taught  in  college  before ;  and  it  was  with  no 
little  difficulty  that  a  volunteer  class  of  eight  was  found 
desirous,  or  at  least  willing  to  avail  themselves  of  his 
[Dr.  Follen's]  services.  I  was  one  of  that  class.  We 
were  looked  upon  with  very  much  the  amazement  with 
which  a  class  in  some  obscure  tribal  dialect  of  the  remot- 
est Orient  would  now  be  regarded.  We  knew  of  but  two 
or  three  persons  in  New  England  who  could  read  German, 
though  there  were  probably  many  more  of  whom  we  did 
not  know.  There  were  no  German  books  in  the  book- 
stores. A  friend  gave  me  a  copy  of  Schiller's  Wallenstein, 
which  I  read  as  soon  as  I  was  able  to  do  so,  and  then 
passed  it  from  hand  to  hand  among  those  who  could 
obtain  nothing  else  to  read.  There  was  no  attainable  class- 
book  that  could  be  used  as  Reader.  A  few  copies  of 
Noehden's  Grammar  were  imported,  and  a  few  copies  of 
I  forget  whose  Pocket  Dictionary,  fortunately  too  copious 
for  an  Anglo-Saxon  pocket,  and  suggesting  the  generous 
amplitude  of  the  Low  Dutch  costume,  as  described  in 
Irving's  mythical  History  of  Nezv  York.  The  German 
Reader  for  Beginners,  compiled  by  our  teacher,  was  fur- 
nished to  the  class  in  single  sheets  as  it  was  needed,  and 
was  printed  in  Roman  type,  there  being  no  German  type 
within  reach."  * 

remained  a  year  or  more.  He  found  some  encouragement  as  a 
teacher  of  German.  I  studied  German  with  his  aid.  He  was  some- 
what arrogant  in  his  pretensions,  but  could  justly  claim  to  con- 
siderable learning  in  the  language  of  his  religion  and  of  the  coun- 
try from  which  he  emigrated."  Memories  of  Youth  and  Manhood, 
1855.  II,  p.  145-     Cf.  Wilkens,   III,  p.  159. 

1  Harvard  Reminiscences.     Cf.  Report,  1897-98,  I,  p.  614. 

Cf.  Follen,  V,  p.  132. 

Cf.  Cogswell's  letter  in  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  XXV,  p.  II. 


Introduction  23 

Professor  Moses  Stuart  who  brought  German  theology 
and  philology  to  Andover,  writes  thus  of  his  early  at- 
tempts : 1  '  Time  was,  when  for  years  together,  I  was 
almost  alone  in  the  study  of  German  in  our  country. 
There  were,  indeed,  and  always  have  been,  native  Germans 
in  some  places,  who,  of  course,  pursued  reading  of  this 
kind.  There  was  here  and  there  a  solitary  individual,  who 
had  been  prompted  by  accident,  or  moved  by  curiosity,  or 
led  by  peculiar  circumstances  to  the  study  of  German. 
There  were  some  at  Boston  and  Cambridge  who  had 
begun  to  make  inquiries  respecting  it.  But  among  all  our 
clergy  the  deed  was  undone,  and  even  the  bare  attempt  to 
do  it  was  regarded  as  a  matter  of  idle  curiosity,  or  as  a 
kind  of  excrescence  or  monstrosity  in  respect  to  the  body 
of  sound  and  healthy  literature.  Of  course,  I  had  no 
weight  of  examination  to  plead  in  my  favor,  no  experi- 
ence to  which  I  could  appeal,  as  a  proof  that  German  study 
was  not  necessarily  connected  with  heresy.  ...  I  believe 
the  late  J.  S.  Buckminster  of  Brattle  Street  Church  was 
the  only  man  among  the  Literati  of  this  region  who  at 
that  time  had  any  other  knowledge  of  German  than  what 
belonged  to  a  mere  tyro." 

George  Ticknor's  impulse  to  study  German  came  through 
a  French  medium,  through  a  book  in  which  opened  up  a 
new  world  to  him.  This  is  his  recital  of  his  early  efforts : 
"  The  first  intimation  I  ever  had  on  the  subject  was  from 
Mme.  de  StaeTs  work  on  Germany,  then  just  published. 
My  next  came  from  a  pamphlet,  published  by  Villers, — to 
defend  the  University  of  Gottingen  from  the  ill  intentions  of 
Jerome  Bonaparte,  then  King  of  Westphalia, — in  which 
he  gave  a  sketch  of  the  university  and  its  courses  of  study. 

1  Chris.  Review,  VI,  pp.  454,  456,  Sept.,  1841. 


24  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

My  astonishment  at  these  revelations  was  increased  by  an 
account  of  its  library,  given  by  an  Englishman  who  had 
been  at  Gottingen,  to  my  friend,  the  Reverend  Samuel  C. 
Thacher.  I  was  sure  that  I  should  like  to  study  at  such 
a  university,  but  it  was  in  vain  that  I  endeavored  to  get 
further  knowledge  upon  the  subject.  I  would  gladly  have 
prepared  for  it  by  learning  the  language  I  should  have  to 
use  there,  but  there  was  no  one  in  Boston  who  could  teach 
me.  At  Jamaica  Plain  there  was  a  Dr.  Brosius,  a  native 
of  Strassburg,  who  gave  instruction  in  mathematics.  He 
was  willing  to  do  what  he  could  for  me  in  German,  but 
he  warned  me  that  his  pronunciation  was  very  bad,  as  was 
that  of  all  Alsace,  which  had  become  a  part  of  France. 
Nor  was  it  possible  to  get  books.  I  borrowed  a  Meidin- 
ger's  Grammar,  French  and  German,  from  my  friend,  Mr. 
Everett,  and  sent  to  New  Hampshire,  where  I  knew  there 
was  a  German  dictionary,  and  procured  it.  I  also  obtained 
a  copy  of  Goethe's  Werther  in  German  (through  Mr. 
William  Shaw's  connivance)  from  among  Mr.  J.  G. 
Adams'  books,  deposited  by  him  on  going  to  Europe  in 
the  Athenaeum,  under  Mr.  Shaw's  care,  but  without  giving 
him  permission  to  lend  them.  I  got  as  far  as  to  write  a 
translation  of  Werther,  but  no  further."  x 

The  foregoing  facts  show  the  literary  poverty  of  the 
time.  As  Henry  Adams  pertinently  remarks  in  reference 
to  New  England :  "  Possibly  a  few  Bostonians  could  read 
and  speak  French,  but  Germany  was  nearly  as  unknown 
as  China,  until  Mme.  de  Stael  published  her  famous  work 
in  1814."  Likewise,  in  discussing  the  Intellect  of  the  Mid- 
dle States  (chap,  iv)  he  notes  a  similar  condition. 
"  Pennsylvania  was   largely    German   and   the    Moravians 

1  Life,  Letters,  and  Journals,  Boston,  I,  pp.  11-12.  Edited  by 
Ferris  Greenslet.    2  vols.,  new  ed.,  1909. 


Introduction  25 

were   not  without   learning,  yet   no  trace   of   German   in- 
fluence  showed   itself   in   the   educated   and  literary   class. 
.  The    Western    nations    knew    no    more    of    German 
thought  than  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphics."  1 

1  History  of  the   United  States,  9  vols.,  New  York,   1890,   I,  pp. 
94,  123. 


CHAPTER  II 

MME.  DE  STAEL'S  INTEREST  IN  GERMAN 
LITERATURE 

(a)  Her  Knowledge  of  German  before  1803 

Anne  Louise  Germaine  Necker  (1766-1817),  as  the 
name  indicates,  was  of  Teutonic  stock.  Her  father,  Jacques 
Necker  (1732-1804),  was  the  son  of  a  Prussian  from  Kiis- 
trin,Karl  Friedrich  Necker,  who  emigrated  to  Geneva  (1724) 
and  became  Professor  of  Law  in  the  university  and  a  writer 
on  religious  and  economic  questions.  There  his  two  sons, 
Louis  and  Jacques,  were  reared  in  the  Calvinistic  faith. 

This  younger  son,  Jacques,  was  early  destined  for  a 
mercantile  career.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  went  to 
Paris,  where  he  soon  became  head  of  the  greatest  banking- 
house  of  the  time.  In  1773  the  Republic  of  Geneva  ap- 
pointed him  resident  minister  at  the  French  court ;  three 
years  later  he  became  director  of  the  French  treasury, 
and  then  Minister  of  Finance  to  Louis  XVI.  Necker  was 
a  man  of  the  highest  integrity,  a  hater  of  imitation  and 
affectation,  a  lover  of  truth  and  generosity.  Of  him  his 
daughter  said :  '  I  owe  to  the  incredible  penetration  of 
my  father  the  frankness  of  my  character  and  the  candor 
of  my  spirit.  He  unmasked  every  affectation,  and  when 
with  him  I  was  wont  to  believe  that  he  could  see  clearly 
into  my  soul."  * 

r  *  Mme.    Necker    de    Saussure :    Notice    sur    le    Caractere    et    les 
Ecrits  de  Mme.  de  Stael,  CEuvres  completes,  III,  p.  6,  Paris,  1844. 

26 


Interest  in  German  Literature  27 

Her  mother,  Mme.  Susanne  Necker,  nee  Curchod  (1739- 
94),  was  a  woman  of  personal  beauty,  of  great  erudition, 
and  of  exemplary  conduct.  The  only  daughter  of  a 
Huguenot  pastor  at  Crassier,  a  hamlet  in  the  Jura  Moun- 
tains in  Vaud,  Mile.  Curchod  was  thoroughly  versed,  not 
only  in  Latin,  English,  and  French,  but  also  in  German. 
The  English  historian  Gibbon,  who  met  her  in  his  visits 
to  Lausanne,  said :  "  I  found  her  learned  without  pedantry, 
lively  in  conversation,  pure  in  sentiment,  and  elegant  in 
manners."  1 

In  her  own  character  Germaine  Necker  exemplifies  the 
peculiar  traits  of  both  father  and  mother.  With  an  in- 
tellect of  masculine  scope  and  breadth,  an  independence 
not  intimidated  by  power,  an  unbounded  energy,  and  great 
common  sense,  a  passionate  love  for  truth,  liberty,  and 
glory,  a  large  and  expansive  range  of  vision,  she  com- 
bined the  tender  warmth,  the  ardent  zeal,  the  enthusiastic 
imagination,  the  intuitive  insight,  the  naive  sensibility,  and 
the  poetic  fancy  of  a  woman.  Like  Goethe,  she  hated  all 
negative  virtues ;  the  deadly  indifference  which  poisons  all 
progress,  the  sullen  apathy  which  corrupts  individual  en- 
deavor, the  stolid  mediocrity  which  ridicules  the  flights  of 
genius.  In  versatility  her  few  rivals  were  men  like  Goethe 
and  Voltaire.  She  was  poet,  critic,  novelist,  musician, 
dramatist,  actress,  patriot,  statesman,  diplomatist,  meta- 
physician, philosopher,  moralist,  salonniere,  educator,  yet 
withal  a  loyal  friend,  a  generous  patron,  an  affectionate 
daughter,  and  a  loving  mother.  Chief,  however,  among 
her  varied  roles  was  that  of  interpreter  for  German  litera- 
ture and  culture  before  the  tribunal  of  an  apathetic 
world. 

1  Memoirs  of  My  Life  and  Writings,  chap.  iv. 

Cf.  Abel  Stevens:  Madame  de  Sta'el,  New  York,  1881,  I,  p.  II. 


28  Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

One  important  fact  in  Mine,  de  Stael's  interest  in  Ger- 
many was  her  Protestant  faith.  Her  firm  belief  that 
Protestantism  was  intimately  associated  with  education, 
morality,  freedom,  individuality,  and  progress  finds  ex- 
pression in  her  critical  essay,  De  la  Littcrature  considcree 
dans  ses  Rapports  avec  les  Institutions  sociales  (1800). 
'  That  which  gives  in  general  to  the  modern  peoples  of 
the  North  a  more  philosophical  spirit  than  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  South  is  the  Protestant  religion  which  nearly 
all  these  peoples  have  adopted.  The  Reformation  is  that 
epoch  of  history  which  has  most  effectively  promoted  the 
'  perfectibility '  of  the  human  race.  ...  In  those  coun- 
tries where  Protestantism  is  professed,  philosophical  re- 
searches are  in  nowise  retarded,  while  the  purity  of  morals 
is  most  effectively  maintained."  x  Accordingly,  when  the 
First  Consul  was  debating  what  form  of  religion  was  best 
for  state  purposes,  it  was  she,  together  with  Benjamin  Con- 
stant and  Baron  Cuvier,  who  urged  and  aided  Charles  de 
Villers  to  make  known  in  France  the  Protestant  religion 
of  Germany.  Villers  responded  with  his  Essai  sur  la 
Reformation  de  Luther  (1804),  a  work  that  defended  the 
conception  of  "  perfectibility,"  and  pointed  to  the  fact  that 
whereas  Spain  had  only  eight  universities,  Italy  six,  and 
France  but  three,  Germany,  the  country  of  Protestantism, 
supported  twenty  such  institutions.2 

Mme.  Necker's  famous  literary  salon  must  also  be  reck- 
oned with.  There  were  congregated  in  these  gatherings 
many  prominent  writers,  all  interested  in  foreign  literature, 
especially  in  German  and  English.     M.  Necker  himself  was 

1  Pt.  i,  chap.  xi.     Cf.  Delphine,  pt.  iv,  lettre  xvii. 

2  Cf.  Joseph  Texte :  Les  Origines  de  I'Infliiencc  allemande  dans 
la  Litterature  frangaise  du  XIXe  Steele,  Revue  d'Histoire  litteraire, 
Jan.  15,  1898,  pp.  1-53. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  29 

an  ardent  student  of  English  literature  and  a  fervent  ad- 
herent of  the  English  constitution.  His  ideals  were  shared 
by  the  historian,  Edward  Gibbon,  Mme.  Necker's  erstwhile 
admirer  and  now  the  respected  friend  and  ally  of  the  Necker 
household.  Carlyle  presents  a  humorous  picture  of  the 
"  new  young  demoiselle  .  .  .  romping  about  the  knees  of  the 
Decline  and  Fall." 1  But  ardent  friends  of  Germany 
numbered  not  a  few.  Denis  Diderot,  the  encyclopedist  and 
"  l'homme  de  la  nature,"  was  an  admirer  of  Klopstock, 
Gessner,  Leibniz,  Thomasius,  but  especially  of  Lessing, 
whose  dramatic  taste  his  own  views  and  plays  influenced, 
as  evinced  in  the  Hamburgische  Dramaturgie.  On  his 
journey  through  Russia  (1773,  and  return,  1774)  Diderot 
had  gained  much  insight  into  German  institutions,  and  in 
his  Essai  sur  les  Etudes  en  Russie,  he  shows  exact  knowl- 
edge in  reference  to  the  German  system  of  education.  Of 
him  Goethe  wrote:  "He  was  closely  akin  to  us,  just  as 
in  everything,  for  which  the  French  criticise  him,  he  is  a 
true  German."  2 

In  close  friendship  to  this  Teutonic  Frenchman  was  a 
gallicized  German,  Friedrich  Melchior  Grimm,3  or  Baron  de 
Grimm,  who,  as  a  kind  of  private  journalist  for  thirty- 
seven  years,  furnished  many  of  the  royal  personages  of 
Europe  with  Correspondance  litteraire,  philosophique  et 
critique  from  Paris.  In  1774  he  visited  his  native  land 
and  was  so  enthusiastic  over  the  new  literature  in  Ger- 
many that  he  communicated  his  delight  to  his  friend,  Henri 
Meister.  This  one  learns  from  a  letter  of  Meister's  father 
to  Bodmer  Dec.  26,  1776,  which  reads  as  follows:  "My 
Parisian   [son]   writes  me  that  Grimm  has  returned  from 

1  Macmillan,   LXIX,   pp.   435-42,    1894. 

2  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  bk.  ii. 

3  Cf.  p.  5. 


30  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

his  fatherland,  very  enthusiastic  over  the  genius  of  the 
young  Goethe,  who  has  written  the  Hofmeisler,  Clavigo, 
Alceste,   Cotter  und  IVieland,  and  several  other  works."  ' 

Grimm's  successor  in  the  Correspondance  was  Henri 
Meister,  the  lifelong  friend  of  the  Necker  family,  a  Swiss 
patrician,  an  ecclesiastic  "  defroque,"  the  friend  of  Vol- 
taire and  of  Rousseau,  and  a  preceptor  in  the  home  of 
Mme.  Vermenoux,  the  former  benefactor  of  Susanne 
Curchod  and  the  godmother  of  Germaine  Necker.2 

Other  prominent  members  of  this  circle  were  the  littera- 
teur Marmontel,  hostile  in  his  Poctique  francaise  to  classic 
traditions;  the  Parisian  journalist  and  "emigrant"  Jean 
Suard,  a  most  energetic  worker  for  the  dissemination  of 
international  culture ;  the  Marquis  de  Pezay,  in  literary 
communication  with  Voltaire  and  Rousseau ;  and  the  writer 
and  philosopher  Morellet,  who,  though  a  Jesuit  and  an 
abbe,  was  a  devoted  friend  of  the  encyclopedists  and  an 
active  agent  in  the  study  of  foreign  literature  and 
philosophy. 

These  were  among  the  most  frequent  guests  of  Mme. 
Necker's  salon — Anglomanes,  gallicized  Germans,  and 
revolutionary  Frenchmen — all  dissatisfied  with  French 
traditions  and  seeking  higher  ideals  of  life  and  humanity 
in  nature  and  in  foreign  literatures. 

A  precocious  child,  who  at  the  age  of  fifteen  made 
annotations  to  Montesquieu's  Esprit  des  Lois  and  produced 
little  dramas  and  novelettes,  mostly  studies  in  passion, — 
all  composed  in  the  prevalent  style  of  the  time  and  under 
the   joint   influence  of   Richardson,   Rousseau,   and    Wer- 

1  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  XXVI,  p.  296.  Note. — Either  Grimm  or 
Meister  was  imperfectly  informed,  as  G'dtz  and  Werther  are  not 
mentioned,  while  the  Hofmeistcr  was  written  by  Lenz  and  Alceste 
by  Wieland. 

2  Lettres  inedites  contains  a   memoir  of  Meister's  life. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  31 

ther,1  Mile.  Necker  could  not  fail  to  assimilate  much  of 
this  Germanophile  atmosphere  about  her.  Her  own  mar- 
riage in  1786  to  the  Swedish  ambassador,  Baron  de  Stael- 
Holstein,  brought  her  even  into  closer  relations  with  for- 
eign countries.  In  her  own  salon  there  assembled  a 
younger  generation — a  throng  of  bright,  eager  souls,  pul- 
sating with  an  ardent  desire  for  nature,  freedom,  and  hu- 
manity. An  intense  interest  in  the  new  Germanic  life  and 
literature  became  predominant  in  the  minds  of  all  Mme. 
de  StaeTs  intimate  friends.  These  are  the  men  and  women 
who  figure  later  in  the  "  emigrant  literature." 

A  prominent  member  of  this  circle  was  Jean  M.  de 
Gerando,  the  French  philosopher  and  politician,  who, 
exiled  after  the  eighteenth  Fructidor,  studied  German 
poetry  and  philosophy  at  Tubingen,  and  furnished  the  first 
article  in  the  Archives  littcraires,  entitled  Les  Communica- 
tions littcraires  et  philosophiques  entre  les  Nations  de 
I'Europe.  To  him  Mme.  de  Stael  is  indebted  for  much 
literary  and  philosophical  information,  especially  from  his 
Histoire  comparce  des  Systcmes  de  Philosophie  (1803). 

Exiled  at  the  same  time  with  Gerando  was  Camille  Jor- 
dan, likewise  a  student  at  Tubingen  and  a  friend  of  Goethe, 
Schiller,  Wieland,  Herder,  Schelling,  and  of  Mounier.2 
Jordan's  poetic  and  philosophical  temperament  inclined  his 
attention  especially  to  Klopstock  and  to  Schiller.  Con- 
cerning his  translations  from  Klopstock,  published  in 
L'Abeille  francaise,  Mme.  de  Stael  wrote  to  him  July  3, 
1803 :  "  How  shall  I  express  to  you  the  enthusiasm  which 
your  translation  has  made  me  feel?     I  trembled,  I  wept, 

1  Cf.    Erich    Schmidt:    Richardson,    Rousseau   und   Goethe,   Jena, 

1875. 

2  A    Frenchman    who    in    1795    had    established    a    pensionnat    at 

Weimar,  the  College  de  Belvedere. 


32  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

when  reading  it,  just  as  if  I  had  heard  suddenly  after 
ten  years  of  exile  the  language  of  my  native  country.  Here 
is  true  talent,  that  of  the  soul."  1 

Other  members  of  this  circle  were  Charles  de  Chene- 
dolle,  the  French  poet  and  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Klop- 
stock  and  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Spectateur  du  Nord; 
Martin  de  Vanderbourg,  who  wrote  for  the  Publiciste, 
Archives  littcraires,  Mercure  etranger,  Journal  des 
Savants,  and  other  international  magazines,  and  translated 
Jacobi's  Woldemar  (1792),  Lessing's  Laocobn  (1802),  and 
Wieland's  Crates  et  Hipparque  (1818);  Adrien,  Comte  de 
Lezay,  the  friend  of  Burger,  editor  of  the  Journal  de  Paris 
and  translator  of  Don  Carlos  (1799);  Philippe  Albert 
Stapfer,  the  Swiss  diplomat  and  writer,  and  a  journalist 
for  the  Archives  littcraires,  and  for  its  continuation,  the 
Melanges  de  Littcrature  ctrangcre;  Francois  de  Neuf- 
chateau,  Comte  de  l'Empire,  who  created  the  museum  of 
the  Louvre  and  wrote  for  the  Conservateur  litteraire  and 
for  the  Decade.  Many  other  noted  Frenchmen  engaged  in 
the  study  of  German  literature  might  be  named  as  asso- 
ciates in  salon  or  literary  life  with  Mme.  de  Stael. 

The  man  who  held  the  highest  place  in  Mme  de  Stael's 
affections  was  Benjamin  Constant  de  Rebecque,2  by  birth  a 
Swiss,  who,  according  to  Sainte-Beuve,3  was  "  a  descendant 
of  Rousseau,  tinged  with  Germanism."  4  Educated  at  Ger- 
man universities  and  at  Edinburgh,  this  great  cosmopolite 
made  his  home  in  Northern  Europe — in  France,  Holland, 

1  Sainte-Beuve :  Nonveaux  Lundis,  XII,  p.  298:  Camille  Jordan 
et  Mme.  de  Stael. 

"Josef  Ettlinger:  Benjamin  Constant,  Der  Roman  eines  Lebens, 
Berlin,  1909. 

3  Cf.  Texte,  p.  452. 

4  Cf.  Ludwig  Borne's  words :  "  He  had  a  German  head  and  a 
French  heart."     Cf.  Ettlinger,  p.  309. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  33 

Switzerland,  and  Germany.  At  Coppet,  September  1793, 
he  first  met  Mme.  de  Stael,  and  the  handsome  cynic  and 
"  blase  moquer,"  the  zealous  anti-Romanist,  and  the  keen 
fencer  in  argument  was  attracted  to  the  earnest,  eloquent, 
and  enthusiastic  woman.  His  extensive  knowledge  of  for- 
eign countries,  his  wide  experience  as  a  philosophical 
jurist,  his  discriminating  study  of  literature  and  religion 
enlarged  Mme.  de  StaeTs  views  in  those  lines.  He  figured 
also  as  the  author  of  a  novel,  Adolphe  (1815),  a  distant 
relative  of  Werther.  As  editor  of  the  Mercure  de  France 
he  gave  evidence  of  his  appreciation  of  the  German  char- 
acter and  literature.  Exiled  in  1803  for  his  bold  political 
speech  in  the  Tribunate,  he  traveled  in  Germany,  and  lived 
for  a  time  at  Coppet,  where  he  made  a  free  translation  of 
Schiller's  Wallenstein.1 

The  one  who,  more  than  any  other  person,  had  the  great- 
est influence  upon  Mme.  de  Stael  in  directing  her  attention 
to  the  field  of  German  culture  was  Charles  Dominique  de 
Villers,  a  Catholic  army  officer.  On  account  of  his  four 
political  pamphlets,  De  la  Liberie,  Villers  was  obliged  to 
leave  the  country.  In  Gottingen  he  became  a  great  friend 
of  Eichhorn,  Heyne,  Kastner,  Spittler,  and  Schlozer. 
From  this  time  on  he  made  it  his  life-work  to  explore  the 
unknown  territory  of  German  literature  and  philosophy 
and  to  communicate  his  knowledge  to  his  countrymen.  In 
the  Spectateur  du  Nord,  of  which  he  was  an  assistant 
editor,  he  wrote,  in  1798,  Idees  sur  la  Destination  des 
Hommes  de  Lettres  sortis  de  France  et  qui  scjournent  en 
Allemagne.  He  also  served  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
Archives   littcraires   and   of    the    Melanges   de   Littcrature 

1  Wallstein,  tragedie  en  cinq  actes  ct  en  vers,  precedee  de 
quclques  reflexions  sur  le  theatre  allemand,  et  suivie  de  notes  his- 
toriqucs  (1809). 


34  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ctrangcre.  In  1801  he  wrote  his  Philosophic  de  Kant,  ou 
les  Principes  fondamentaux  de  la  Philosophic  transcenden- 
talc,  the  first  French  work  on  that  subject.  At  that  time 
he  received  permission  to  return  to  France  and  made  a 
flying  visit  to  Paris,  partly  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  Mme. 
de  Stael  and  urging  her  to  visit  Germany.  As  she  was 
then  at  Coppet,  he  had  to  content  himself  by  sending  a 
copy  of  his  Kant  to  her.  It  was  also  during  this  year  that 
Villers,  urged  by  Cuvier,  Constant,  and  Mme.  de  Stael, 
started  his  great  work  on  the  German  reformer,  Essai  sur 
la  Reformation  de  Luther  (1804).1  His  next  book,  Les 
Dolcances  des  Peuples  du  Continent  de  V Europe  au  Sujet 
de  I' Interruption  de  leur  Commerce,  won  for  him  the  free- 
dom of  the  city  of  Bremen  and  also  new  persecutions  from 
the  French.  As  professor  of  French  literature  at  Gottingen, 
he  defended  the  university,  in  a  pamphlet  describing  its 
aims  and  courses  of  study,  against  the  evil  intentions  of 
Jerome  Bonaparte,  King  of  Westphalia.  This  was  the 
pamphlet  that  influenced  George  Ticknor.2  Later  Villers  pub- 
lished his  Coup  d'CEil  sur  I'Etdt  de  la  Littcrature  anciennc 
et  de  VHistoire  de  I 'Allemagne.  When  Hanover  came  into 
possession  of  the  English  crown  (1813),  George  III.,  who 
hated  the  French,  deprived  Villers  of  his  professorship. 
Though  invited  to  return  to  France  in  1814  and  granted 
a  pension  of  three  thousand  francs,  Villers  was  so  morally 
crushed  by  the  unjust  blow  that  he  did  not  long  survive. 

(b)  Early  Works  and  Germany 

Mme.  de  Stael's  early  literary  attempts,3  as  previously 
indicated,  were  studies  portraying  sensibility,  modeled  on 
Clarissa    Harloive,    La    nouvelle    Helo'ise,    and    Werther. 

1  Cf.  p.  28.  2  Cf.  p.  23.  8  Cf.  p.  30. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  35 

Following  the  publication  of  several  political  essays  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  Mme.  de  Stael  prepared  an  edition  of 
the  works  of  her  youth,  Rccueil  de  Morceaux  detaches.1 
It  was  after  reading  this  collection  that  Goethe  began  to 
consider  her  work  seriously.  To  Schiller  he  writes,  Oct. 
6,  1795,  that  he  is  translating  the  book,  and  he  finds  it 
"harder  work  than  he  thought,"  and  then  adds:  "In  cer- 
tain places  you  will  find  many  good  things  in  it,  but  as 
she  is  one-sided,  and  yet  again  is  honest  and  sensible,  she 
can  in  nowise  be  in  harmony  with  herself.  As  a  text,  how- 
ever, it  will  certainly  prove  excellent.  I  wish  that  you 
would  take  pains  to  be  as  clear  and  courteous  as  possible 
in  your  work,  so  that  we  may  afterward  send  it  to  her  and 
thereby  begin  to  lead  the  dance  of  the  '  Horen  '  over  into 
this  transformed  France."  2  As  this  letter  indicates,  Goethe 
recognized  a  kindred  element  in  Mme.  de  StaeTs  nature 
and  considered  her  a  worthy  mediator  for  extending  the 
knowledge  of  German  literature  in  France. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  Directory,  Mme.  de  Stael 
resumed  her  critical  work  in  the  Essai  sur  les  Fictions 
(1795),  which  Goethe  also  translated  for  the  Horen.3  In 
this  essay  Mme.  de  Stael,  entirely  out  of  harmony  with 
the  prevalent  principles  of  French  literature,  sounds  that 
note  which  so  often  echoes  and  re-echoes  in  her  succeed- 
ing works ;  namely,  that  natural  fiction  contributes  to 
man's  welfare  and  happiness,  inasmuch  as  it  is  based  on 
imagination  and  emotion.  "  There  is  no  faculty  more 
precious  to  man  than  his  imagination,"  she  writes.  "  Hu- 
man life  seems  so  little  calculated  for  happiness,  that  it  is 

1  Lausanne  and  Leipzig,  1795-96. 

2  Bricfc,  Weimar  ed.,  X,  p.   11,  No.  3213.     Cf.  Nos.   1218-19,  pp. 

3  Ibid.,  X,  p.  348,  No.  3241,  Dec.  15,  i/95- 


36  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

only  by  the  aid  of  illusions,  of  mental  images,  of  the  happy 
choice  of  our  recollections,  that  we  can  assemble  pleasures 
scattered  over  the  earth  and  can  struggle,  not  by  philosophic 
force,  but  by  the  more  effective  power  of  distraction,  against 
the  sorrows  of  destiny."  x  Despite  the  fact  that  Mrae.  de 
Stael  cites  English  writers  chiefly  as  the  best  representa- 
tives of  the  domain  of  natural  fiction — the  novel — she  refers 
to  Werther  as  a  work  portraying  "  the  eloquence  of  pas- 
sion," and  calls  attention  to  German  literature,  "  the  su- 
periority of  which  is  daily  increasing." 

Then  appeared  a  more  extensive  treatise,  De  I' Influence 
des  Passions  sur  le  Bonheur  des  Individus  et  des  Nations 
(1796),2  a  work  which  Napoleon  read  eagerly  during  his 
Egyptian  campaign.3  Goethe  wrote  to  Schiller  of  his  in- 
terest in  this  work4  and  later  advised  the  selection  of  pas- 
sages from  it  for  the  Horen.5  To  J.  W.  Meyer  he  wrote 
at  length  in  praise  of  it:  "This  book  is  extremely  remark- 
able :  one  sees  in  it  a  very  passionate  nature,  who,  in  con- 
stant contemplation  of  herself,  of  the  contemporary  events, 
in  which  she  played  so  great  a  role,  and  of  history, .which 
she  sees  so  vividly,  is  writing  about  the  passions  and  is 
surveying  most  excellently  the  web  of  human  views  and 
feelings." 6  As  types  of  profound  sensibility  in  love 
Werther  and  some  scenes  from  German  tragedies  are  cited 
anew. 

Mme.    de    Stael's   keen   critical   and   philosophical   sense 

1  GLuvres,  I,  pp.  62,  70-71.  Cf.  a  like  quotation  from  the  same 
essay:  "The  great  power  of  fiction  is  to  move  the  soul:  moral 
truths,  when  put  into  action,  become  self-evident." 

2  Translated  into  German  by  Leonard  Meister,  the  cousin  of. 
Henri  Meister,  Lettrcs  inedites,  p.  143. 

8  Edinb.  R.,  CCII,  p.  87,  July,  1005. 

*  Brief e,  XI,  p.  270,  No.  3438,  Nov.  30,  1796. 

6  No.  3443,  Dec.  7,  1796. 

0  No.  3440,  Dec.  5,  1796.  Cf.  also  No.  3446,  Dec.  8,  1796. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  37 

was  better  shown,  however,  in  a  more  elaborate  study, 
De  la  Litterature  considerce  dans  ses  Rapports  avec  les 
Institutions  socialcs  (1800),  the  forerunner  in  general  plan 
as  well  as  in  content  of  the  work  on  Germany.  It  was 
written  to  counteract  the  general  feeling  of  disappointment 
caused  by  the  failure  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  to 
show  that  by  the  study  of  literature  and  philosophy  a  new 
future  might  arise  from  this  chaos  of  shattered  hopes  and 
institutions.  It  is  in  this  book  that  we  recognize  for  the 
first  her  remarkable  gift  of  penetrating  into  the  inner 
secrets  of  her  time,  of  understanding  the  general  course 
of  human  culture,  and  of  divining  the  true  forces  which 
were  to  bring  about  a  regeneration  of  her  nation  and  of 
humanity  in  general.  Very  important  for  our  study  is  the 
fact  that  even  in  this  book  she  discovers  these  forces  in 
the  philosophy  and  literature  of  Germany.  Mme.  de  Stael 
was  fully  aware,  not  only  of  the  sterility  of  the  French 
literature  and  of  the  decay  of  French  civilization,  but  also 
of  the  causes  that  had  brought  them  about.  She  says : 
"We  have  arrived  at  a  period  in  which  the  character  of 
the  people  resembles  in  some  respects  that  which  prevailed 
at  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  in- 
vasion of  the  peoples  from  the  north.  At  that  time  the 
human  race  was  in  need  of  enthusiasm  and  austerity.  .  .  . 
The  epoch  of  the  return  to  virtue  is  not  far  distant,  and 
already  the  soul  is  eager  for  honest  sentiments,  even  if 
reason  has  not  yet  insured  their  triumph."  x 

In  this  critical  study  of  1800  the  central  idea  is  the 
"  perfectibility  "  of  humanity,  the  constant  and  increasing 
development  of  the  race.  But  where  dread  of  offending 
the  relentless  tribunal  of  fashion  and  ridicule  reigns  su- 
preme, as  in  France,  it  may  be  a  solace  to  jealous  medi- 
1  De  la  Litterature,  pt.  ii,  chap.  v. 


38  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ocrity,  but  only  a  blight  to  genius,  to  genuine  goodness,  to 
pure  enthusiasm  and  to  real  superiority.  This  despotism 
of  opinion  Mme.  de  Stael  attributes  to  the  prevailing  phi- 
losophy of  her  nation,  founded  solely  upon  reason,  upon 
calculation  from  experience.  Reason,  then,  must  yield  to 
impulse,  to  virtue  and  innate  affection,  as  the  noblest  guar- 
antees of  progress ;  for  virtue  and  genius  are  no  less 
closely  related  than  vice  and  stupidity. 

A  chapter  of  this  book  is  devoted  to  the  discussion  of 
German  literature.  Despite  the  fact  that  she  then  knew 
but  little  of  this  literature,  and  that  only  through  transla- 
tion, she  had  clearly  comprehended  its  essential  spirit  and 
developed  principles  and  conceptions  that,  curiously,  co- 
incide with  those  of  the  German  Romantic  School,  of  whose 
existence  she  knew  nothing  at  the  time. 

Mme.  de  Stael  is  one  of  the  first  to  point  out  how  the 
division  of  Germany  into  small  principalities  had  con- 
tributed to  produce  so  many  talents.  With  a  feudal 
governmental  system  and  the  lack  of  a  common  center, 
German  literature  bears  the  distinctive  marks  of  the  work 
of  a  free  people,  for  whose  democracy  such  men  as  Her- 
der, Burger,  Goethe,  and  Schiller  were  striving.  The  Eng- 
lish have  less  independence  than  the  Germans  in  their,  re- 
ligious and  political  opinions  by  reason  of  their  deep  re- 
spect for  existing  customs  and  traditions.  German  litera- 
ture, on  the  other  hand,  is  based  on  feeling,  imagination, 
and  enthusiasm.  Werther  she  compares  with  the  master- 
pieces of  other  languages ;  in  no  language  is  there  a  pro- 
duction that  displays  a  more  striking  and  natural  picture 
of  the  wanderings  of  enthusiasm,  a  deeper  insight  into  mis- 
fortune, a  keener  search  into  that  abyss  of  nature  where 
truth  is  visible  only  to  the  eye  capable  of  discerning  it. 
Rousseau  is  inferior  to  Goethe,  because  although  the  Helo'ise 


Interest  in  German  Literature  39 

is  an  elegant  and  eloquent  composition,  it  characterizes  only 
the  genius  of  one  man,  and  not  the  manners  of  the  nation.1 
The  enthusiasm  which  Werther  aroused,  especially  in  Ger- 
many, is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  written  entirely  in  the 
national  taste. 

Opposed  to  the  spirit  of  cold  reasoning  and  ironical 
eloquence  so  prevalent  in  her  own  country,  it  is  enthusiasm 
that  Mme.  de  Stael  considers  as  the  essential  feature  of  the 
Germanic  character.  In  contrast  to  French  levity,  the  re- 
sult of  one-sided  intellectualism,  she  emphasizes  the  preva- 
lence of  melancholy  and  earnestness  in  the  German  litera- 
ture. Although  she  has  read  Klopstock's  Messias  in  trans- 
lation only,  she  is  able  to  detect  its  marvelous  beauty  and 
the  sweet  melancholy  pervading  the  whole  poem.  In  the 
tragedies  of  Schiller  she  beholds  beauties  indicative  of  a 
great  mind,  recalling  those  impetuous  emotions  which  por- 
tray the  predominant  affections  of  the  soul,  emotions  that 
have  been  stifled  or  restrained  by  the  ties  or  traditions  of 
society.  This  is  but  the  Storm  and  Stress  idea,  the  spirit 
of  the  individual  revolting  against  the  narrow  bans  of 
social  and  political  customs. 

Though  Mme.  de  Stael  appreciates  the  beauties  of  Ger- 
man literature,  she  is  by  no  means  blind  to  its  defects, 
many  of  which  she  states  are  the  result  of  imitation  of 
foreign  or  native  models.  Only  genius  can  depict  en- 
thusiasm and  still  hold  fast  to  truth ;  too  often, 
however,  mediocrity  substitutes  a  factitious  enthusiasm 
which  leads  only  to  absurdities.  The  Germans  are 
too  indulgent  in  allowing  an  abundance  of  trivial  no- 
tions in  their  philosophy  and  in  permitting  the  repetition 
of  hackneyed  thoughts.  Sometimes,  too,  they  are  even 
deficient  in  taste,  for  their  fondness  for  metaphysical  senti- 

1  Pt.  i,  chap.  xv. 


40  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ments  leads  them  to  insert  in  the  most  impassioned  scenes 
abstract  ideas  and  reasonings,  so  that  all  the  characters  talk 
like  German  philosophers.  On  the  other  hand,  their  genius 
frequently  inspires  them  with  the  most  simple  expressions 
for  the  noblest  passions. 

To  the  reproach  that  many  German  writers  lack  grace 
and  sprightliness,  and  try  to  gain  them  by  imitation  of 
French  models,  she  replies  that  the  native  Germanic  stock 
has  energetic  and  striking  beauties  of  its  own  which  fully 
atone  for  the  want  of  grace  and  "  esprit."  Pleasantry,  in- 
deed, is  not  consistent  with  abstract  philosophical  reason- 
ing, and  such  a  combination  of  the  serious  and  of  the 
frivolous  does  not  accord  with  that  natural  good  taste 
which  depends  upon  involuntary  emotion.  The  great  pro- 
vince of  German  literature,  she  says,  is  serious  reason  and 
eloquent  sensibility.  No  nation  is  more  peculiarly  adapted 
to  investigation  in  history,  philosophy,  and  the  sciences. 

Nevertheless  a  voluntary  subjection  prevents  Germany 
from  attaining  the  full  enlightenment  of  which  it  is  capable, 
a  subjection  to  the  spirit  of  sect,  which  often  is  as  bitter 
as  that  of  party.  In  Germany  educated  men  are  inspired 
by  a  knowledge  that  includes  a  love  of  the  beautiful  and  a 
reverence  for  virtue ;  in  place  of  religious  superstition, 
austere  morality  and  natural  reason  form  the  foundation 
of  their  philosophical  creeds.  But  of  what  use  is  knowl- 
edge, if  it  serve  only  as  an  annihilating  force  and  furnish 
no  constructive  energy?  With  the  eye  of  a  seer  Mme.  de 
Stael  beholds,  as  in  a  vision,  the  mission  of  Germany,  and 
in  glowing  and  eloquent  words  she  prophesies  its  great 
future — the  mission  of  the  regeneration  of  her  country 
and  of  the  world.1 

1  "  If  by  any   invincible  misfortune,   France   should   one   day  be 
destined  to  lose  forever  all  hope  of  liberty,  then  Germany  would 


Interest  in  German  Literature  41 

This  work  is  indeed  a  forerunner  of  De  VAllemagne  and 
as  such  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  it  in  a  subsequent 
chapter. 

Two  novels  followed  this  critical  study,  which  attempted 
to  carry  out  the  principles  embodied  in  the  latter.  Delphine 
(1802)  is  a  sort  of  feminine  Werther  and  based  on  Goethe 
and  Germanic  ideals.  Condemned  in  England  for  im- 
morality,1 and  in  France  made  a  pretext  of  its  author's 
exile,  it  found  ready  welcome  among  kindred  German 
spirits,2  the  more  so  as  it  honored  their  deep-seated  feeling 
of  truth,  bewailed  the  sterility  of  French  literature,  and 
advised  the  study  of  German  literature  as  beneficial  in 
opening  up  new  lines  of  thought  and  of  literary  activity. 
The  following  are  her  remarkable  utterances  in  the  preface 
to  the  original  edition :  "  Another  nation,  the  Germans,  who 
are  as  distinguished  for  their  learning  as  the  English  are 
for  their  institutions,  have  novels  of  deep  truth  and  sensi- 
bility; but  we  judge  badly  of  the  beauties  of  German  litera- 
ture, or  to  speak  more  correctly,  the  small  number  of  en- 
lightened persons  who  know  anything  at  all  about  it  do  not 

become  the  seat  of  learning,  and  in  its  bosom  would  be  established 
at  some  future  epoch  the  principles  of  political  philosophy.  .  .  . 
Ye  enlightened  people,  ye  inhabitants  of  Germany,  who  perhaps 
may  be  one  day  like  us,  enthusiasts  in  every  republican  idea,  be 
invariably  faithful  to  a  single  principle,  which  in  itself  alone  is 
a  sufficient  safeguard  against  all  irreparable  errors.  Never  permit 
yourself  any  action  of  which  morality  can  disapprove;  never  listen 
to  those  miserable  reasoners  who  tell  you  of  the  difference  that 
ought  to  be  established  between  the  morality  of  the  private  indi- 
vidual and  that  of  the  public  citizen.  This  distinction  proceeds 
from  a  perverted  spirit  and  a  narrow  mind;  and  if  we  should  ever 
perish,  it  will  be  because  we  have  adopted  this  principle." 

1  Edinb.  R.,  II,  pp.  172-77,  Apr.,  1803,  reviewed  by  Rev.  Sydney 
Smith. 

2  Goethe  contemplated  reviewing  it.  Cf.  Brief e,  Nos.  4620  and 
4741- 


42  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

take  the  trouble  to  answer  those  who  know  absolutely 
nothing  about  it.  It  is  only  since  the  time  of  Voltaire  that 
France  has  rendered  justice  to  the  admirable  literature  of 
the  English ;  we  need  again  a  man  of  genius  who  will  enrich 
his  mind  with  the  pregnant  originality  of  certain  German 
writers,  in  order  that  the  French  may  be  persuaded  that 
there  are  works  in  Germany  in  which  ideas  are  pro- 
found and  sentiments  expressed  with  new  energy. 

"  Without  doubt  present  authors  are  right  in  recalling 
constantly  the  respect  that  is  due  the  masterpieces  of 
French  literature.  .  .  .  But  the  great  calamity  which 
threatens  our  literature  to-day  is  sterility,  frigidity,  and 
monotony.  Now  the  study  of  the  perfect,  and  in  general 
well-known  works  which  we  possess  teaches  us  indeed 
what  ought  to  be  avoided  but  never  inspires  any  new 
creation ;  while  in  reading  the  writings  of  a  nation,  whose 
manner  of  looking  upon  life  differs  much  from  that  of 
the  French,  the  mind  is  excited  by  new  combinations,  the 
imagination  is  animated  by  the  bold  expressions  that  it 
condemns  as  well  as  by  those  that  it  approves ;  and  thus 
we  might  succeed  in  adapting  to  the  French  taste,  per- 
haps the  purest  of  all,  original  beauties  which  would  give 
to  the  literature  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  character  that 
would  be  appropriate  to  it.  .  .  .  It  seems  to  me  then  that 
those  national  prejudices  which  hinder  the  French  from 
studying  anything  but  themselves,  would  be  a  great  obstacle 
to  their  future  success  in  a  literary  career." 

Mme.  de  Stael's  second  novel,  Corinne,  ou  L'ltalie  (1807), 
was  likewise  the  sad  history  of  a  woman  of  genius,  beauti- 
ful and  generous,  doomed  to  be  misunderstood  by  cold  un- 
sympathetic minds.  For  its  fine  rhapsodies  on  art  the 
writer  was  undoubtedly  indebted  to  the  profound  erudi- 
tion and  keen  critical  sense  of  August  Wilhelm  Schlegel, 


Interest  in  German  Literature  43 

who  acted  as  her  mentor  on  her  visit  to  Italy  in  1805.  For 
its  inspiring-  apotheosis  of  liberty,  however,  the  reader  must 
thank  the  sublime  eloquence,  lively  imagination,  ardent 
sensibility,  and  fervent  enthusiasm  of  the  author.  As  such 
it  is  still  regarded  by  Italy,  and  according  to  Lady  Blenner- 
hassett,  in  the  window  of  every  Italian  book-store  is  a 
copy  of  Corinne,  "  as  an  undying  leaf  in  the  garland  of 
honor  left  by  foreigners  on  classic  soil."  1 

This  novel  exalts  "  that  power  of  enthusiasm  without 
which  the  faculty  of  thought  serves  only  to  disgust  one 
with  life,"  2  and  declares  that  the  imagination,  character, 
and  habits  of  a  nation  should  form  its  theater.3  When 
the  Comte  d'Erfeuil,  a  typical  Frenchman,  upholds  the 
French  classic  writers  as  the  most  perfect  model  for  for- 
eigners as  well  as  for  the  French,  Corinne  answers :  "  I 
can  hardly  believe  that  it  would  be  desirable  for  the  entire 
world  to  lose  all  national  color,  all  originality  of  wit  and 
sentiment,  and  I  venture  to  tell  you,  Count,  that  even  in 
your  country,  that  literary  orthodoxy,  which  opposes  every 
happy  innovation,  will  in  the  long  run  render  your  literature 
very  sterile." 

And  Prince  Castel- Forte,  a  cultured  Italian,  adds:  "It 
seems  to  me  that  we  all  have  need  of  each  other;  the 
literature  of  each  country  discloses  to  the  one  who  knows 
it  a  new  sphere  of  ideas.  It  was  Charles  V.  indeed  who 
said  that  a  man  who  knew  four  languages  was  worth  four 
men.  If  this  great  political  genius  made  this  remark  in 
reference  to  business,  how  much  truer  is  it  in  regard  to 
literature !     All  foreigners  know  French,  hence  their  point 

1  Frau  von  Stael,  Hire  Freunde  und  ihre  Bedeutung  in  Politik  und 
Littcratur,  3  vols.,  Berlin,  1887-89,  III,  p.  158. 

2  Bk.  x,  chaj).  iii,  p.  743. 
8  Bk.  vii,  chap,  ii,  p.  714. 


44  Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

of  view  is  broader  than  that  of  the  French,  who  do  not 
know  any  foreign  languages.  Why  do  they  not  oftener 
take  the  trouble  to  learn  them?  They  preserve  only  that 
which  distinguishes  them,  and  thus  they  sometimes  ex- 
pose what  they  lack."  l 

From  this  account  of  Mme.  de  Stael's  principal  literary, 
critical,  and  philosophical  work  previous  to  1810,  exclusive 
of  De  l'Allemagne,  one  sees  that  she  showed  herself 
throughout  as  an  advocate  of  imagination,  feeling,  en- 
thusiasm, morality,  religion,  simplicity,  and  philosophy, 
those  very  qualities  which  were  the  watchwords  of  the 
early  Romantic  School  in  Germany. 

Unquestionably  Mme.  de  Stael  was  interested  in  Ger- 
man literature.  But  did  she  read  it  in  the  original?  As- 
suredly, but  not  until  about  the  year  1800.  Although  her 
father  and  her  mother  knew  German  and  her  uncle  was  a 
German  subject,  I  can  find  no  record  that  Mme.  de  Stael 
ever  heard  it  spoken  at  home.  Before  1800  she  seems  even 
to  have  had  no  desire  to  learn  it,  although  she  kept  her- 
self informed  of  the  trend  of  German  thought,  as  it  ap- 
peared in  French  translations  in  the  international  maga- 
zines. 

As  late  as  1796  Mme.  de  Stael  was  probably  influenced 
by  the  theory  of  Pere  Bouhours,  that  the  Germans  were 
deficient  in  "  esprit."  She  ignored  Meister's  suggestion 
that  she  journey  from  Coppet  to  Zurich  to  visit  Wieland. 
Later  in  the  year  (Oct.  16)  she  states  her  intention  of 
sending  Wieland  and  Goethe  each  a  copy  of  De  I'Influence 
des  Passions.  This  courtesy  Goethe  acknowledged  by  for- 
warding her  a  copy  of  his  novel  Wilhelm  Meister,  and 
April  22,  1797,  she  writes  from  Hervieux  to  Meister: 
"  Goethe   has   sent  me  in  the  finest  binding  possible  his 

1  Bk.  vii,  chap,  i,  p.  710. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  45 

novel  Wilhelm  Meister.  As  it  was  in  German,  I  could 
admire  only  the  binding.  .  .  .  But  it  is  necessary  that  in 
your  kindness  of  heart  you  write  to  Goethe  a  fine  letter 
of  thanks,  which  will  throw  a  veil  over  my  ignorance  and 
will  speak  much  of  my  gratitude  and  admiration  for  the 
author  of  Werther. 1 

In  a  letter  to  Meister,  dated  July  28,  1800,  Mme.  de 
Stael  uses  the  expression  "  Vergessen  mich  nicht,"  2  show- 
ing that  she  had  not  yet  mastered  the  rudiments  of  the 
German  language.  The  following  September  she  requests 
Meister  to  send  her  Agnes  de  Lilien,  a  novel  written  by 
Frau  von  Wolzogen,  and  also  some  German  fairy  tales  or 
else  Campe's  Voyages  in  Germany  for  translation  by  her 
son.  She  informs  him,  too,  that  M.  Gerlach,  the  tutor  of 
her  sons,  has  sent  for  the  following  books  for  her :  Diction- 
naire  des  deux  Nations,  Goethe's  dramatic  works,  and 
Schiller's  W  all  en  stein  ? 

It  was  Charles  de  Villers  3  who  really  induced  Mme.  de 
Stael  to  go  to  Germany.  In  his  letters  he  urged  her  per- 
sistently to  visit  that  country,  and  even  made  in  1801  an 
unsuccessful  trip  to  Paris  for  that  purpose.  In  answer  to 
his  urgent  invitations  she  writes  from  Coppet  Nov.  16, 
1802:  "You  ask  me  why  I  do  not  go  to  Germany.  I  do 
not  know  German,  and  so  it  seems  to  me  that  I  would 
know  less  about  it,  than  through  books.  What  one  says 
in  a  foreign  language  is  usually  mere  form."  But  soon 
after  she  writes  again :  "  I  believe  with  you  that  the  human 
spirit,  which  seems  to  travel  from  one  country  to  another 
is  at  present  in  Germany.  I  am  studying  German  dili- 
gently, for  I  am  sure  that  it  is  there  alone  where  I  shall 

1  Lettres  inedites,  p.  146. 
5  Ibid.,  pp.  169-71,  Sept.  10. 
3  See  chap,  ii,  p.  33. 


46  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

find  new  thoughts  and  profound  sentiments."1  By  the 
middle  of  the  following  year  she  has  quite  decided  to  take 
the  journey,  and  then  she  writes  to  Villers :  "Do  you 
know  I  have  a  great  mind  to  take  a  trip  to  Germany  and 
if  you  return,  perhaps  I  might  plan  my  journey  with 
you?"1 

Such  was  the  extent  of  Mme.  de  Stael's  knowledge  of 
the  German  tongue,  when  she  was  exiled  from  France 
Oct.  15,  1803. 

In  this  discussion  of  the  influences  directing  Mme.  de 
Stael's  attention  to  the  serious  study  of  German  life  and 
literature,  it  has  been  shown  that  by  virtue  of  her  Swiss 
origin ;  her  natural  tendencies  of  character ;  her  liberal 
Protestant  faith ;  her  broad  cosmopolitan  education ;  her 
association  with  Anglomanes,  gallicized  Germans,  French 
emigrants,  and  distinguished  foreigners  in  her  salon  at 
Paris,  on  her  travels,  and  especially  at  her  home  in  Coppet ; 
by  virtue  of  her  own  literary,  critical,  and  philosophical 
training,  she  was  more  Teutonic  than  French  in  spirit. 
This  was  also  the  opinion  of  the  Germans.  Jean  Paul 
spoke  of  her  poetic  German  heart  and  French  taste.2  As 
early  as  Oct.  10,  1800,  Humboldt  wrote  to  Goethe  from 
Paris:  "It  is  a  strange  phenomenon,  to  find  in  the  midst 
of  a  nation  sometimes  a  human  being,  who  bears  a  foreign 

1  Texte :  Revue,  pp.  35-36. 

2  Jean  Paul  said  in  1814:  "That  which  makes  her  a  judge  of  our 
art  as  well  as  a  poet  is  her  emotional  temperament ;  her  heart  is 
German  and  poetic,  although  her  taste  is  sufficiently  French." 
Werke,  XIX,  p.  166. 

Cf.  Ludwig  Borne's  words  in  1822,  in  his  essay  on  the  French 
language:  "Rousseau,  Mme.  de  Stael,  and  Benjamin  Constant  are 
not  surpassed  by  any  German ;  but  they  are  born  Swiss,  therefore 
more  German  than  French,  and  the  last  two  were  a  long  time 
in  Germany,  and  from  German  books  and  intercourse  with  Ger- 
mans they  have  imbibed  the  German  spirit."    Cf.  Ettlinger,  p.  308. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  47 

spirit  in  the  bonds  of  nationality,  and  I  would  not  like  to 
decide  whether  there  is  not  here  a  strife  between  the  Ger- 
man peculiarities  that  have  been  inherited  by  Mme.  de 
Stael  and  those  that  have  been  obtained  by  educa- 
tion." 1 

Mme.  de  Stael  recognized  this  characteristic  herself. 
In  her  early  work  in  1800  she  declared  that  all  her  ideas, 
all  her  impressions  led  her  to  prefer  the  literature  of  the 
North.2  Later,  in  a  letter  to  the  German  author,  Friederike 
Brun,  July  15,  1806,  she  confessed  that  she  would  have 
been  able  to  accomplish  more  if  she  were  not  working 
under  the  disadvantage  of  the  union  of  diametrically  op- 
posed French  and  German  traits  of  character.3  After  her 
flight  from  Coppet  she  wrote  to  Schlegel  from  Stockholm, 
May  18,  1813:  "I  am  much  disturbed  about  Germany; 
it  has  become  for  me,  through  you  and  through  the  en- 
thusiasm that  the  people  manifest,  a  kind  of  fatherland."4 
And  four  months  later  she  declared  her  willingness  to 
make  that  country  her  home,  if  it  were  free.5 

This  peculiarity  of  character  was  also  apparent  to  the 
Frenchmen  of  a  later  generation.  Faguet  says  that  she 
has  "  a  European  spirit  in  a  French  soul."  6  Paul  Gautier 
discusses  this  question  at  length  in  his  book,  Madame  de 
Stael  et  Napoleon,  and  affirms  that  "  one  side  of  her  nature 
is  profoundly  Germanic.  She  is  more  at  her  ease  with 
German  feeling  (Gemut)  than  with  French  irony."7 
Many  other  modern  critics  of  Mme.  de  Stael  refer  to  her 

1  Cf.  Lady  Blennerhassett,  III,  p.  9. 

2  De  la  Litterature,  pt.  i,  chap,  xi,  p.  253. 
"Lady  Blennerhassett,  III,  p.  171. 

*  Lettres  incdites,  p.  255. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  263.    Letter  to  Schlegel  from  London,  Sept.  26,  1813. 
0  Cf.  Texte :  /.  /.  Rousseau,  p.  433. 

7  Paris,  1903,  chap,  xviii,  p.  277. 


48  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

cosmopolitan  character,  but  not  all  appreciate  the  fact  that 
the  ideals  and  principles  which  she  found  established  in 
Germany  at  the  time  of  her  first  visit  in  1803-04  perfectly 
coincided  with  her  own  views  and  sentiments  and  served 
but  to  broaden  and  strengthen  them.  To  her  Germany 
was  not  an  alien  land,  but  a  "  patria  "  in  thought,  and  the 
German  nation,  not  a  nation  of  strangers,  but  of  kinsmen 
in  feeling  and  ideals. 


*& 


(c)   Visits  to  Germany  1803-04,  1807-08 

On  the  15th  day  of  October  1803  was  issued  the  decree 
of  Mme.  de  Stael's  exile  from  Paris  and  its  environs  for 
forty  leagues  around.  In  vain  did  she  seek  to  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  France ;  in  vain  did  Joseph  Bonaparte 
intercede ;  the  Emperor  was  inexorable.1  It  was  then  that 
her  decision  became  crystallized  to  visit  the  land  "  d'Outre- 
Rhin." 

To  a  student  of  her  life  and  works  three  motives  stand 
out  clearly  for  her  first  voyage  to  Germany.  Germany, 
in  spite  of  its  political  humiliation,  still  preserved  those 
ideals  of  education,  morality,  religion,  individual  worth, 
and  intellectual  freedom,  which  harmonized  so  well  with 
her  own  conceptions  and  temperament.  It  was  the  "  coun- 
try of  thought,"  2  the  "  heart  of  Europe,"  3  and  formed  one 
of  the  two  extremities  of  the  moral  chain,  of  which  France 
was  the  other  end.  Yet  the  intellectual  riches  of  this  coun- 
try, despite  the  noble  efforts  of  Villers,  Gerando,  Jordan, 
and  other  French  emigrants,  were  generally  unknown.2 

1  Cf .  Alcee  Fortier :  Histoire  de  la  Litterature  franqaise,  New- 
York,  1893,  p.  298. 

2  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  pp.  4-5,  and  pt.  ii,  chap.  i.  Cf.  preface  to 
Delphine.    Cf.  Corinne,  bk.  vii,  chaps,  i-ii. 

8  Preface,  I,  p.  xvii. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  49 

Realizing  the  advantage  to  her  own  country  and  to  the 
world  at  large  in  a  knowledge  of  German  life  and  litera- 
ture, Mme.  de  Stael  decided  to  become  an  active  agent  in 
the  extension  of  this  culture.  Furthermore,  Germany  was 
the  home  of  the  author  of  Werther,  the  book  which  marked 
a  turning-point  in  her  life.1  On  Dec.  15,  1803,  she  wrote 
Goethe  that  she  had  come  to  Germany  particularly  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  him  and  to  gain  from  him  the  in- 
spiration which  was  to  last  the  rest  of  her  life.2  Finally, 
Germany  was  the  land  of  the  oppressed  foe  of  Napoleon; 
naturally  an  interesting  place  for  a  visit  by  a  political 
antagonist  of  the  Emperor.  In  Dix  Annces  d'Exil,  she 
speaks  of  her  desire  to  recover  through  the  kind  reception 
promised  her  in  Germany  from  the  outrage  inflicted 
upon  her  by  the  First  Consul,  and  of  her  intention  of 
contrasting  the  welcoming  kindness  of  the  ancient  regime 
with  the  impertinence  of  the  upstart  about  to  subjugate 
France.3 

Oct.  19,  1803,  Mme.  de  Stael  left  Paris  with  her  chil- 
dren, accompanied  by  Benjamin  Constant,  who  had  also 
been  exiled.  They  went  by  way  of  Chalons  to  Metz. 
There  Villers  met  her,  and  she  had  a  visit  of  fifteen  days 
with   "  one   of  the   wittiest   and  most  agreeable   men   that 

1  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  1884,  p.  112.     Cf.  also  No.  113. 

2  "  I  wrote  you  this  morning,  Sir,  you  must  believe  that  my  first 
desire  in  coming  to  Germany  was  to  become  acquainted  with  you, 
and  to  obtain  the  honor  of  your  good-will.  I  shall  remain  here 
until  the  beginning  of  the  year,  and  shall  look  forward  to  your 
coming  to  spend  several  days  with  me;  but  if  your  health  will  not 
permit  this,  kindly  write  so  to  me,  and  I  shall  come  to  spend  two 
days  with  you  at  Jena;  I  need  at  least  this  much  time  to  express 
my  admiration  for  you  and  to  gather  up  some  of  your  thoughts 
which  will  germinate  in  my  spirit  the  rest  of  my  life."  Ibid.,  1887, 
No.  5. 

8  Pt.  i,  chap.  xii. 


50  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

France  and  Germany  together  could  produce."  1  Mean- 
while, Constant  journeyed  elsewhere ;  and  Mme.  de  Stael, 
following  the  itinerary  provided  by  Villers,  traveled  to 
Frankfort,  where  she  was  delayed  for  some  time  by  the 
serious  illness  of  her  little  daughter.  She  then  proceeded 
to  Weimar,  where,  December  14,  she  received  a  most 
hearty  reception  from  the  Weimar  court.  Of  the  ex- 
hilarating effect  this  had  upon  her  spirit  she  wrote  later : 
"  I  arrived  at  Weimar,  where  I  regained  courage  on 
seeing  through  the  difficulties  of  language  the  immense 
intellectual  riches  outside  of  France ;  I  learned  to  read 
German ;  I  listened  to  Goethe  and  to  Wieland,  who,  for- 
tunately for  me,  spoke  French  very  well.  I  comprehended 
the  soul  of  Schiller  in  spite  of  his  difficulty  of  expressing 
himself  in  a  foreign  language.  I  enjoyed  immensely  the 
society  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Weimar,  and  I  spent 
there  three  months,  during  which  time  the  study  of  the 
German  literature  gave  to  my  spirit  all  the  animation 
which  it  needed  to  keep  me  from  devouring  myself."  2 

According  to  M.  Albert  Sorel,  "  the  effect  that  Mme. 
de  Stael  produced  upon  the  court  and  the  city  of  Weimar 
has  been  wittily  compared  to  the  incursion  of  a  squirrel 
in  an  ant-hill."  3 

Herder  was  on  his  deathbed  (he  died  Dec.  18),  Goethe 
was  absent  on  business  in  Jena  and  was  likewise  ill. 
Schiller,  though  in  poor  health,  was  working  hard  on  his 
Wilhelm  Tell,  and  did  not  like  to  be  disturbed ;  neverthe- 
less he  did  his  best  to  aid  the  literary  circle  in  entertain- 
ing  the   noted   foreigner.      Wieland,   who   saw   her   nearly 

JCf.  her  letter  to  Villers,  Dec.  28,  1803,  in  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  II, 
p.  250. 

2  Dix  Annees,  pt.  i,  chap.  xii. 

"  Mme.  de  Stael,  Paris,  1890,  chap,  iv,  p.  109. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  51 

every  day,  wrote  of  her  animation,  her  great  conversa- 
tional ability,  her  genius.1  To  the  absent  Knebel  the  Grand 
Duchess  Amalie  wrote  in  great  praise  of  Mme.  de  Stael, 
urging  him  to  return  to  Weimar  to  meet  her.2  The  Grand 
Duchess  Louise,  quiet,  great-hearted  wife  of  Karl  August, 
chose  her  as  her  only  intimate  friend ;  their  constant  cor- 
respondence thereafter  was  interrupted  only  by  Mme.  de 
StaeTs  death  in  1817.3 

Schiller,  whom  Jean  Paul  4  considers  a  sort  of  kinsman 
of  Mme.  de  Stael,  furnishes  a  most  interesting  descrip- 
tion of  her.  To  Goethe  he  writes  Dec.  21,  1803:  "Mme. 
de  Stael  will  appear  to  you  just  as  you  have  already  con- 
ceived her ;  she  is  all  of  one  piece,  and  there  is  not  a  false 
and  alien  trait  in  her.  So  despite  the  immense  difference 
of  our  natures  and  manner  of  thought,  I  am  completely  at 
ease  with  her,  and  can  bear  to  hear  anything  from  her 
and  may  say  anything  in  return.  She  represents  perfectly 
the  French  intellectual  culture  in  its  most  interesting  phase. 
In  all  what  we  call  philosophy,  in  its  final  and  highest 
consequences,  I  disagree  with  her  and  continue  to  do  so, 
in  spite  of  all  talk.  But  her  nature  and  feelings  are  better 
than  her  metaphysics,  and  her  fine  intellect  exalts  itself 
into  genius.  .  .  .  The  only  annoying  thing  about  her  is 
the  uncommon  volubility  of  her  tongue ;  one  must  be  all 
ears  in  order  to  be  able  to  follow  her.  Yet  inasmuch  as  I 
with  my  very  poor  French  get  on  tolerably  well  with  her, 

1  "  She  has  proved  that  a  woman  can  have  genius,  despite  what 
Rousseau  his  said."     Lettres  inedites,  p.  238. 

2  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  X,  pp.   120-21,  1889. 

'  Mme.  Amelie  Lenormant :  Coppet  et  Weimar,  Paris,  1862. 

4  Cf.  Kleine  Biicherschau,  IVerke,  XIX,  p.  192:  "  Mme.  de  Stael 
is  not  only  his  sister,  but  in  his  brilliancy  of  style  he  is  himself  at 
times  a  distant,  though  transfigured,  relative  of  Corneille  and 
Crebillon."     Cf.  De  I'Allemagne,  I,  p.  322,  pt.  i,  chap.  xiii. 


3 


2  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 


you  because  of  your  greater  fluency  in  that  tongue,   will 
find  it  very  easy  to  talk  to  her."  1 

Schiller's  judgment  is  delightfully  frank  but  not  perfect. 
In  order  to  elicit  the  full  truth  in  regard  to  this  ideal  phi- 
losophy, Mme.  de  Stael  in  their  discussions  probably  made 
use  of  objections  instead  of  concessions.  Moreover,  Schil- 
ler's very  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  French  language  hin- 
dered him  no  doubt  from  gaining  the  full  import  of  her 
remarks,  thus  laying  the  foundation  of  the  slight  misunder- 
standing. He  perceived,  however,  wherein  Mme.  de  Stael's 
real  genius  lay,  as  she  likewise  was  charmed  by  the  German 
poet's  true  greatness.  In  De  l'Allemagne  she  records  her 
first  meeting  with  him  on  Dec.  14,  1803.  "  I  saw  Schiller 
for  the  first  time  in  the  salon  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Weimar  in  the  presence  of  a  company  as  enlightened  as 
it  was  exalted.  He  read  French  very  well,  but  he  had 
never  spoken  it ;  I  maintained  with  warmth  the  superiority 
of  our  dramatic  system  over  those  of  other  nations ;  he 
did  not  refuse  to  differ  from  me,  and  without  feeling  any 
uneasiness  from  the  slowness  and  difficulty  with  which 
he  expressed  himself  in  French,  without  dreading  the  opin- 
ion of  his  audience,  which  was  contrary  to  his  own,  his 
inner  conviction  led  him  to  speak.  In  order  to  refute  him, 
at  first  I  made  use  of  French  arms,  of  vivacity  and  pleas- 
antry ;  but  in  what  Schiller  said  I  soon  discovered  so  many 
ideas  through  the  impediment  of  his  words,  I  was  so  struck 
with  that  simplicity  of  character  that  induced  a  man  of 
genius  to  engage  thus  in  a  struggle  where  words  were  lack- 
ing to  express  his  thoughts,  I  found  him  so  modest  and  so 
indifferent  in  all  that  concerned  his  Own  success,  so  proud 

1  Cf.  his  letters  to  Korner,  Jan.  4,  1804,  and  to  Humboldt,  Apr.  2, 
1805. 
Cf.  Charlotte  von  Schiller's  letter  to  Goethe,  Dec.  21,  1803. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  53 

and  so  zealous  in  the  defense  of  what  he  considered  the 
truth,  that  from  that  very  instant  I  vowed  to  him  a  friend- 
ship  replete  with  admiration."  1 

Goethe,  absent  at  the  time  of  Mme.  de  Stael's  arrival, 
met  her  on  Christmas  Eve.  His  first  impression  of  her 
was  by  no  means  favorable.  In  the  first  place,  Goethe  was 
far  more  unapproachable  than  Schiller.  This  fact  Henry 
Crabb  Robinson  records  in  his  Diary:  "  While  the  admira- 
tion excited  by  Goethe  was  accompanied  by  awe,  that  which 
was  felt  toward  Schiller  was  mixed  with  love  and  pity."  2 
Although  Goethe  was  more  proficient  in  French  than  Schil- 
ler, he,  too,  seemed  annoyed  by  the  "  uncommon  volubility 
of  her  tongue."  He,  as  well  as  Schiller,  felt  it  a  griev- 
ance that  Mme.  de  Stael  should  not  have  learned  Ger- 
man before  coming  to  Germany,  for  she  ought  not  to  expect 
Germans  in  their  native  land  to  speak  a  foreign  language. 
Also,  in  her  first  lengthy  meeting  with  Goethe  on  the  morn- 
ing of  January  16,  Mme.  de  Stael  had  very  naively  in- 
formed him  that  she  intended  later  to  print  his  words.3  Not 
caring  to  have  every  chance  remark  recorded,  Goethe  shut 
himself  up  in  his  shell,  from  which  he  could  be  enticed 
only  occasionally.  Then  he  became  very  talkative  and  in- 
teresting. Mme.  de  Stael  writes :  "  When  Goethe  is  induced 
to  talk,  he  is  admirable ;  his  eloquence  is  enriched  with 
thought ;  his  pleasantry  is  at  the  same  time  replete  with 
grace  and  philosophy ;  his  imagination  is  impressed  by  ex- 
ternal objects  as  was  that  of  ancient  artists ;  nevertheless 
his  reason  possesses  in  the  highest  possible  degree  the  ma- 
turity of  our  own  times.  Nothing  disturbs  the  strength  of 
his  mind,  and  even  the  defects  of  his  character, — ill-humor, 


1  I,  pp.  25Q-60,  pt.  ii,  chap.  viii. 

I.  p.   186. 
"Goethe's  Brief c,  No.  4812.     Letter  to  Schiller. 


a 


54  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

constraint,  embarrassment, — pass  like  clouds  around  the  foot 
of  that  mountain  upon  the  summit  of  which  his  genius  is 
placed." * 

In  the  Annalen  of  1804  Goethe  treats  Mme.  de  Stael's 
visit,  at  the  same  time  giving  an  inkling  of  his  own  nature. 
He  says :  '  To  philosophize  in  society  means  to  discuss 
with  vivacity  insolvable  problems.  This  was  her  special 
delight  and  passion.  Naturally  she  carried  this  on  in  dia- 
logue and  conversation  even  in  regard  to  those  matters 
which  ought  to  be  the  subject  of  conversation  only  between 
God  and  the  individual.  At  the  same  time  as  a  woman 
and  as  a  Frenchwoman  too,  she  had  always  the  habit  of 
insisting  positively  upon  principal  points  and  of  not  listen- 
ing attentively  to  what  the  other  person  said.  On  account 
of  all  this  my  evil  genius  was  aroused,  so  that  everything 
that  came  up  for  discussion,  I  treated  as  dialectic,  contra- 
dictory, and  problematic,  and  through  my  obstinate  opposi- 
tion I  brought  her  almost  to  the  verge  of  despair,  and 
then  for  the  first  time  she  was  very  charming,  and  ex- 
hibited most  brilliantly  her  cleverness  in  conversation  and 
repartee." 

It  is  clear  that  Goethe  did  not  always  show  the  better 
side  of  his  nature.  Critics  talk  about  Mme.  de  Stael's 
inability  to  appreciate  his  genius.  I  am  surprised  that  in 
the  few  days  of  their  intercourse  she  succeeded  so  well  in 
penetrating  beneath  this  mask  of  taciturnity  and  ill-humor 
and  in  discovering  many  of  the  chief  traits  of  his  character. 

Among  the  other  Weimaraner  whom  Mme.  de  Stael  met 
were  Knebel  and  Bottiger,  -and  Fraulein  von  Gochhausen, 
the  companion  of  the  Duchess  Amalie  and  the  copyist  of 
Goethe's  first  Faust.  At  the  same  time  there  were  some 
noted  Germans  then  visiting  in  Weimar:  Professor  Wolf 
1De  l'Allemagne,  I,  pp.  250-51,  pt.  ii,  chap.  vii. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  55 

of  Halle,1  Johannes  von  Miiller,  Swiss  historian  and  Berlin 
counselor,2  and  the  poet  Voss.3 

Early  in  March  Mme.  de  Stael  left  Weimar  for  Berlin. 
She  was  provided  with  letters  of  introduction  to  Schlegel 
and  to  Zelter  from  Goethe,  and  with  one  to  La  Forest, 
the  French  ambassador,  from  Joseph  Bonaparte.  The 
Weimar  court  had  secured  a  cordial  reception  for  her  there, 
for  Duchess  Louise  of  Saxe-Weimar  was  the  aunt  of  the 
Prussian  king,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  III.  In  Berlin  she  met 
the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange,  the  Prince  and  Princess 
of  Brunswick,  the  Prince  and  Princess  Radziwill,  the 
Duchess  of  Kurland,  the  Princes  Augustus  and  Louis 
Ferdinand  of  Prussia,  Baron  Brinckmann,  the  Swedish  am- 
bassador, the  Schlegels,  Fichte,  Ancillon,  Zelter,  Rahel 
Levin,  Frau  Sarah  Levy,  Mme.  de  Berg,  Kotzebue,  Spald- 
ing, Nicolai,  Mme.  de  Genlis,  Comte  de  Tilly,  Sir  George 
Jackson,  Drummond,  Stevens,  Miiller,  and  numerous  ar- 
tists, diplomats,  and  professors. 

She  did  not,  however,  feel  at  home  in  the  great  German 
metropolis.  Her  admiration  for  the  true  German  char- 
acter is  shown  in  her  delight  in  the  little  provincial  city 
of  Weimar,  and  she  bases  her  conception  of  German  life 
and  character  on  the  ideals  displayed  in  the  intellectual  life 
there.  To  her  Weimar  was  the  one  spot  where  the  intel- 
lectual leaders  of  the  race  were  gathered,  the  only  place 
where  the  fine  arts  inspired  a  national  interest  which  might 
serve  as  a  bond  of  union  among  different  ranks  of  society.4 

After  a  six  weeks'  stay  at  Berlin  she  traveled  to  Vienna. 
On  account  of  the  death  of  her  father  her  project  for  a 

1  Goethe's  Brief e,  XVII,  p.  32,  No.  4827,  Jan.  25,  1804. 
'  ibid.,  XVII,  p.  51,  No.  4841,  Feb.  4.  1804. 
a  Ibid.,  XVII,  p.  77,  No.  485".  Feb.  27,  1804. 

*  Coppet  et  Weimar,  pp.  50-56,  Mar.  13,  1804;  and  cf.  De 
I'AUcmagne,  pt.  i,  chap.  xv. 


56  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

lengthy  sojourn  in  Weimar  was  abandoned.  With  A.  W. 
Schlegel,  whom  she  had  engaged  as  preceptor  of  her  sons, 
and  with  her  friend  Constant,  she  returned  in  May  to 
Coppet. 

I  pass  now  to  the  circumstances  of  her  second  visit 
to  Germany  and  to  Austria  in  1807-08.  Her  object  was 
to  study  German  life  from  another  point  of  view,  and  also 
to  enroll  her  younger  son  in  the  Military  Academy  at 
Vienna.  Dec.  3,  1807,  she  announced  her  departure  to  the 
prefect  of  Geneva.  Accompanied  by  Schlegel  she  arrived 
in  Munich  on  the  fourteenth  of  the  month.  There  she  saw 
an  old  acquaintance,  Jacobi.  and  met  the  philosopher 
Schelling,  who  had  married  Schlegel's  divorced  wife,  the 
brilliant  Caroline  Michaelis,  daughter  of  the  Gottingen 
orientalist. 

In  April  1808  she  arrived  in  Vienna,  and  received  a 
most  hearty  reception  from  Emperor  Francis  II.  and  the 
whole  imperial  family.  Among  the  new  acquaintances  that 
she  now  formed  were  the  Prince  von  Ligne,  whose  works 
she  later  edited,  the  orientalist  Joseph  von  Hammer- 
Purgstall,  the  noted  physician  Baron  von  Turkheim,  the 
poet  H.  J.  von  Collin,  and  Comte  de  la  Marck,  the  friend 
of  Mirabeau.  She  likewise  attended  Schlegel's  lectures  on 
dramatic  art  and  literature,  delivered  before  an  elite  gath- 
ering of  about  three  hundred  persons.  These  lectures  were 
afterward  translated  into  French  by  her  cousin,  Mme. 
Necker  de  Saussure   (1814). 

After  a  sojourn  of  about  three  weeks  in  Vienna,  Mme. 
de  Stael,  in  company  with  Schlegel  and  Sismondi,  decided 
to  proceed  to  Weimar,  where  she  hoped  to  see  Goethe.1 
Since  May  12,  Goethe  had  been  at  Carlsbad,  and  as  soon 

1  Cf.  Schlegel's  letter  to  Goethe,  Wien,  Jan.  31,  1808,  Schriften 
der  Goethe  Gesellschaft,  XIII,  No.  97,  1896. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  57 

as  Mme.  de  Stael  learned  of  the  fact  she  sent  him  a  most 
cordial  invitation  to  be  her  guest  at  Dresden.1  He  refused 
the  invitation  apparently  on  the  ground  of  the  beautiful 
spring  and  solitude,  though  I  am  confident  that  he  rather 
dreaded  her  conversational  powers.2  He  seemed,  however, 
anxious  to  know  her  opinions  of  the  Germans.3 

July  9,  Mme.  de  Stael  arrived  in  Weimar  to  find  a 
changed  city.  In  1806,  because  of  Karl  August's  patriotic 
maintenance  of  German  nationality,  the  city  had  been  plun- 
dered by  the  French,  its  ruler  forced  to  enter  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine,  and  to  pay  a  war  indemnity  of 
2,200,000  francs.  Schiller  had  passed  away,  also  the 
Duchess  Amalie  and  her  faithful  companion,  Fraulein  von 
Gochhausen.  Wieland  was  ill  at  Belvedere,  but  contrived 
to  come  later  to  Weimar.  Bottiger  was  now  in  Dresden 
and  Professor  Wolf  of  Halle  at  Berlin.  The  Duchess 
Louise  was  preparing  to  journey  to  the  Wilhelmstal.  Con- 
sequently Mme.  de  Stael  remained  but  ten  days,  during 
which  time  Lotte  von  Schiller,  her  sister,  Frau  von  Wol- 
zogen,  Falk,  Knebel,  and  the  members  of  the  court  did 
their  best  to  provide  entertainment  for  the  illustrious  guest. 
To  Goethe  Lotte  von  Schiller  wrote  that  while  Mme.  de 
Stael  was  as  clever  and  brilliant  as  ever,  her  joyous,  ani- 
mated nature  seemed  replaced  by  the  seriousness  of  one 
who  had  suffered  greatly.4 

Frankfort,  the  first  German  city  that  Mme.  de  Stael  had 

1  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  X,  p.  13,  No.  6,  Goethe's  letter  to  his  son, 
June  3,  1808 ;  also  Brief e,  XX,  p.  78,  No.  5544. 

2  Brief e,  XX,  p.  108,  No.  5555,  July  2,  1808,  Goethe's  letter  to 
Frau  von  Stein. 

3  Ibid.,  XX,  pp.  67-68,  No.  5542,  May  26,  1808 :  "  Give  us  indeed 
soon  your  observations  about  us  honest  Germans.  We  deserve  to 
be  aroused  and  encouraged  by  the  good-will  of  a  friendly  neighbor 
and  half-kinswoman  and  to  see  ourselves  in  such  a  dear  mirror." 

4  Goethe  Jahrbuch.  IV,  p.  257,  No.  52,  June  14,  1808. 


58  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

visited,  gave  her  likewise  her  last  picture  of  German  life 
before  her  departure  for  Coppet  in  the  early  part  of  July. 
In  1803  Mme.  de  Stael  had  sought  to  see  Goethe's  mother, 
but  the  old  lady  steadfastly  avoided  her.1  Now,  July  1, 
1808,  the  mother  writes  to  her  son:  "  Mme.  de  Stael,  nee 
Necker,  was  here,"  2  but  the  reference  is  probably  to  Frank- 
fort, for  she  says  nothing  about  actually  talking  with  the 
great  Frenchwoman.  Bettina  von  Arnim  in  her  book, 
Goethes  Briefwcchsel  mit  einem  Kinde,  has  written  a  most 
theatrical  account  of  her  own  meeting  with  Mme.  de  Stael 
at  Mainz  and  tbat  of  Frau  Goethe  in  the  home  of  Moritz 
Bethmann  in  Frankfort.  Investigation  has  proved,  how- 
ever, that  the  whole  is  a  figment  of  Bettina's  most  imagina- 
tive brain,  and  that  Mme.  de  Stael  met  neither  Frau  Goethe 
nor  Bettina  in  1808.3 

From  this  narrative  one  perceives  that  Mme.  de  Stael 
lived  on  German  soil  only  about  a  year  in  all ;  six  and  one- 
half  months  on  her  first  trip  (Nov.  1803-May  1804)  and 
seven  months  on  her  second  journey  (Dec.  1807- July  1808). 
But  her  mind  was  busy  with  the  plan  of  a  work  on  Ger- 
many and  she  was  constantly  seeking  material.  Even  be- 
fore she  left  Weimar  the  first  time  (Mar.  1804),  she  made 
her  first  plan  of  composition  and  decided,  according  to 
Meister,  on  the  name  Lettres  sur  l'Allemagne  in  analogy 
to  Voltaire's  Lettres  sur  les  Anglais.* 

To  Gerando  she  wrote :  "  When  we  meet,  you  will  have 
to  aid  me  in  a  part  of  a  work  that  I  purpose  to  write  on 
Germany.     I  have  studied,  and  shall  still  study,  the  new 

1  Schriften  der  Goethe  Gesellschaft,  IV,  Nos.  154,  155,  156,  1888; 
Jan.  13,  Jan.  24,  Mar.  9,  1804,  Goethe's  mother  to  her  son. 
'Ibid.,  IV,  p.  347- 

3  Cf.  Lady  Blennerhassett,  III,  pp.  214-20,  and  Stevens,  II,  pp. 
21-26. 

4  Lettres  inedites,  p.  203. 


Interest  in  German  Literature  59 

philosophic  and  aesthetic  systems  of  Kant,  Schelling, 
Schlegel,  etc.,  and  I  wish  to  give  an  analysis  of  them.  I 
must  first,  however,  read  what  you  have  written  on  them. 
I  do  not  pretend  to  write  metaphysics ;  but  to  give  an 
estimate  of  the  Germans  and  of  the  spirit  which  character- 
izes their  literature,  it  will  be  requisite  to  give  a  simple 
and  popular  view  of  their  philosophic  theories."  1  Of  the 
composition  of  that  work  the  following  chapter  treats. 

1  Stevens,  I,  p.  329. 


CHAPTER  III 
DE  L'ALLEMAGNE  IN  THE  MAKING 

Heine  in  his  clever  and  ironical  way  represents  Mme. 
de  Stael  as  the  "  sultana  of  thought  "  accompanied  by  her 
'"  loyal  cicerone,  August  Wilhelm  Schlegel,"  taking  a  jour- 
ney "  through  all  the  attic  rooms  of  German  literature," 
and  says :  "'  She  had,  as  it  were,  our  writers  pass  intel- 
lectually in  review,  and  thus  she  parodied  the  great  sultan 
of  matter.  Just  as  he  approached  his  people  with  a  '  How 
old  are  you  ?  how  many  children  have  you  ?  how  many  years 
of  service  ?  etc.,'  so  she  asked  our  writers :  '  How  old  are 
you?  what  have  you  written?  are  you  a  follower  of  Kant 
or  of  Fichte  ? '  and  such  things,  whereupon  the  lady 
scarcely  awaited  the  answer,  which  her  loyal  Mameluke, 
August  Wilhelm  Schlegel,  her  Rustan,  hastily  inscribed  in 
his  notebook."  1 

This  humorous  burlesque  has  a  grain  of  truth,  for  Mme. 
de  Stael  did  try  to  see  personally  all  the  great  men  and 
women  of  Germany,  and  did  question  them  about  their  par- 
ticular field  of  investigation.  When  George  Ticknor  was 
in  Berlin,  the  Prussian  statesman,  Ancillon,  told  him  an 
amusing  anecdote  of  Mme.  de  StaeTs  first  meeting  with 
Fichte;  she  requested  the  metaphysician  to  give  her  a  sur- 
vey of  his  philosophy  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  after- 
ward said  that  she  understood  him  perfectly,  and  that  his 

1  Werke,  Cotta  e<±,  VIII,  p.  10 :,  Deutschland.     Cf.  Ticknor,  I,  p. 
497- 

60 


"  De  l'Allemagne"  in  the  Making  61 

system  was  strikingly  illustrated  by  one  of  Baron  von 
Munchhausen's  stories.1 

In  fact,  Mme.  de  StaeTs  purpose  on  her  journey  had 
been  to  absorb  as  much  information  as  possible  about  Ger- 
many in  a  short  space  of  time,  to  examine  the  people  from 
all  sides  candidly  and  conscientiously,  and  then  to  give 
forth  to  the  world  the  true  spirit  of  the  nation,  as  it  had 
been  revealed  to  her  by  study  and  observation.  To  this 
Schiller  and  Goethe  both  testify.2 

To  aid  in  accomplishing  this  purpose,  Mme.  de  Stael 
enlisted  in  her  service  not  only  the  brilliant  stars,  but  the 
lesser  lights  as  well.  In  Weimar  she  found  an  eager  assist- 
ant in  the  person  of  Karl  August  Bottiger,  an  archaeologist, 
director  of  the  gymnasium,  and  the  author  of  Sabina  and 
Griechische  Vasengemalde.  He  it  was  who  introduced 
her  to  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  an  English  scholar  well 
versed  in  German  and  one  who  could  initiate  her  into  the 
mysteries  of  German  philosophy.  Of  their  relations  Robin- 
son took  note  in  his  Diary,  from  which  I  quote:  "'I  re- 
ceived a  note  from  Bottiger,  the  curious  beginning  of  which 
is  worth  translating:  '  Mme.  de  Stael,  from  whose  lips  flow 
spirit  and  honeyed  speech  (Geist  und  Honigrede),  wishes 
to  make  your  acquaintance,  dearest  Sir  and  Friend.  She 
longs  for  a  philosophical  conversation  with  you,  and  is 
now  busy  with  the  Cahier  (notes)  on  Schelling's  Aesthetics, 
which  I  possess  through  your  kindness.  She  has  in- 
deed translated  some  portions  of  them  with  admirable 
skill."  3 

1  Life,  Letters,  and  Journals,  I,  pp.  497-98. 

2  Karoline  von  Wolzogen  :  Schiller's  Lcben,  Cotta  ed.,  p.  258.  Cf. 
Schiller's  letter  to  Goethe,  Dec.  21,  1803:  "She  has  a  veritable 
hunger  for  ideas."  Cf.  also  Goethe's  Werke,  Cotta  ed.,  VII,  p.  656, 
Annalen  of   1804. 

8  Diary,  I,  pp.  173-75,  178. 


62  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

"  I  may  say  that  she  had  a  laudable  anxiety  to  obtain  a 
knowledge  of  the  best  German  authors ;  and  for  this  reason 
she  sought  my  society,  and  I  was  not  unwilling  to  be  made 
use  of  by  her.  She  said,  and  the  general  remark  is  true, 
'  The  English  mind  is  in  the  middle  between  the  German 
and  the  French,  and  is  a  medium  of  communication  between 
them.'  I  understand  you  better  than  I  do  any  German 
with  whom  I  have  ever  spoken." 

Another  writer  to  whom  Bottiger  applied  for  assistance 
on  behalf  of  Mme.  de  Stael  was  Major  Ludwig  von  Knebel. 
He  was  absent  from  Weimar  on  the  occasion  of  Mme.  de 
Stael's  first  visit  there,  but  was  a  great  admirer  of  her 
writings  and  genius,  and  joined  in  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
sister  Henriette,  who  kept  him  informed  of  the  great  lady's 
movements.  Bottiger  asked  Knebel  to  write  for  Mme. 
de  Stael  a  memoir  on  German  literature  and  the  Weimar 
circle.  Knebel  complied  with  this  request,  and  Feb.  3, 
1804,  sent  the  article  to  his  friend,  suggesting,  however, 
that  since  the  work  was  necessarily  incomplete,  it  was 
meant  for  Mme.  de  Stael's  use  alone.1 

But  "  Friend  Ubique,"  as  Goethe  and  Schiller  nicknamed 
Bottiger,  instead  of  delivering  the  essay  to  Mme.  de  Stael, 
incurred  Knebel's  reproach  by  reading  it  aloud  at  court. 
Karl  Emil  Franzos,  who  treats  this  subject  exhaustively, 
includes  in  his  essay  a  copy  of  this  memoir.     He  decides 

1  "  What  I  ought  still  to  say  concerning  the  article,  in  order  to 
make  myself  clearly  understood  in  regard  to  the  merits  of  the 
German  literary  tendencies,  is,  that  the  French  poetry  is  far  more 
rhetorical  than  cultural  and  that  it  is  the  latter  aim  for  which  the 
Germans  are  striving.  But  the  difference  is  infinite  between  mere 
talk  and  actual  creation  or  production.  Yet  do  not  think  by  any 
means  that  I  wish  to  extol  the  Germans  too  much.  They  are 
lacking  in  taste  alone,  and  here  Mme.  de  Stael  was  entirely  right. 
'  The  Germans  are  generally  deficient  in  taste.'  "  Goethe  Jahrbuch, 
X,  pp.  123-24,  1889. 


"  DE   L'ALLEMAGNE  "    IN    THE    MAKING  63 

that  there  is  no  proof  that  Knebel's  paper  influenced 
Mme.  de  Stael  in  forming  her  judgment  of  German 
literature.1 

In  my  opinion  the  judgment  of  Franzos  is  correct,  for 
the  criticisms  offered  by  Knebel  were  common  property 
at  this  time,  and  if  Mme.  de  Stael  did  read  the  memoir, 
she  probably  learned  nothing  that  was  new  to  her. 

Heine,  who,  by  the  way,  does  not  disdain  to  borrow  the 
title  of  De  VAllemagne  for  the  French  version  of  his 
Romantische  Schule  and  Gestandnisse,  maintains  that  the 
ideas  and  literary  merit  of  De  VAllemagne  were  borrowed 
from  the  romanticist  Schlegel,  and  writes :  "  Mme.  de 
Stael,  of  glorious  memory,  has  here  in  due  form  opened 
a  salon  in  which  she  received  German  writers  and  gave 
them  an  opportunity  to  introduce  themselves  to  the  French 
civilized  world ;  but  in  the  uproar  of  the  various  voices, 
which  scream  from  this  book,  may  be  heard  most  distinctly 
the  fine  treble  of  Mr.  A.  W.  Schlegel.  Where  she  is  en- 
tirely herself,  where  the  great-hearted  woman  expresses 
herself  directly  with  her  whole  beaming  heart,  with  all  the 
fireworks  of  her  intellectual  rockets  and  brilliant  frenzies, 
there  her  book  is  excellent.  But  as  soon  as  she  listens  to 
the  whisperings  of  others,  as  soon  as  she  extols  a  school, 
the  character  of  which  is  entirely  foreign  and  incompre- 
hensible to  her,  as  soon  as  she  through  her  praise  of  this 
school  furthers  certain  ultramontane  tendencies,  which  are 
in  direct  contradiction  to  her  Protestant  clearness,  then  her 
book  is  miserable  and  unenjoyable.  It  happens  therefore 
that  besides  her  conscious  favoritism,  she  practices  a  con- 

1  "  It  is  possible  that  Bottiger  read  aloud  to  her  the  memoir;  it 
is  possible  that  she  took  notes  from  it  and  turned  them  into  good 
account;  but  this  cannot  be  answered  any  more  definitely  than  can 
the  contrary."    Goethe  Jahrbuch,  X,  pp.  137-38. 


64  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

scious  partiality,  and  by  her  praise  of  the  intellectual  life 
and  idealism  of  Germany  she  really  intends  to  censure  the 
contemporary  realism  of  the  French  and  the  material  pomp 
of  the  imperial  epoch.  Her  book  De  l'Allemagne  resembles 
in  this  respect  the  Germania  of  Tacitus,  who  perhaps  by 
his  apology  of  the  Germans  intended  to  write  an  indirect 
satire  against  his  countrymen."  x  And  in  Gestandnisse  he 
continues :  "  The  good  lady  saw  in  our  country  only  what 
she  wanted  to  see;  a  misty  land  of  spirits,  where  human 
beings  without  bodies,  wholly  virtuous,  wander  over  snowy 
meadows  and  discourse  of  morals  and  metaphysics.  .  . 
She  sees  everywhere  German  spiritualism ;  she  praises  only 
our  honesty,  our  virtue,  our  intellectual  culture  .  .  .  she 
does  not  see  our  barracks,  our  brothels,  our  penitentiaries 
.  .  .  one  might  believe  that  every  German  deserved  the 
Monthyon  prize."  2 

In  reading  Heine's  criticism,  one  must  not  forget  his 
excessive  admiration  for  Napoleon  and  his  dislike  of  the 
Schlegels,  which  would  naturally  lead  him  to  disparage  the 
work  of  Napoleon's  great  political  antagonist.  Further- 
more, we  must  remember  that  Heine  belonged  to  a  later 
period  of  literary  activity,  when  social  and  political  condi- 
tions were  vastly  different.  When  he  declares  that  Mme. 
de  Stael's  picture  of  German  life  is  ideal  and  not  true  to 
actual  conditions,  one  may  find  a  grain  of  truth  in  the  re- 
mark, but  one  must  also  maintain  that  inasmuch  as  her  ideals 
were  those  of  Goethe  and  of  Schiller,  who  are  considered 
the  truest  representatives  of  German  character,  her  por- 
trayal of  German  life  and  culture  is  in  accordance  with  the 
true  Germanic  spirit.3    Heine,  intent  on  observing  only  the 

1  Werke,  VII,  p.  122 :  Dentschland,  I. 

2  Ibid.,  VIII,  p.  11. 

3  Cf.    Mme.    de    Stael's   letter   to    the   Grand   Duchess   Louise   of 


"  De  l'Allemagne"  in  the  Making  65 

flaws  of  humanity,  failed  to  recognize  the  good  in  man. 
Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Mme.  de  Stael,  trusting  to  the  good  in 
humanity,  ignored  human  frailties  as  insignificant  factors  in 
the  constant  evolutionary  progress  of  mankind  toward  the 
Godhead.  In  view  of  the  extraordinary  effect  of  Mme.  de 
StaeTs  book  the  question  whether  her  portrayal  of  German 
life  was  correct  in  the  photographic  sense  of  the  word 
seems   immaterial. 

If  it  is  true  that  Mme.  de  Stael  did  see  the  better  side  of 
Germanic  civilization,  then  it  was  due  to  her  optimistic 
temperament,  rather  than  to  the  influence  of  the  Schlegels. 
Niebuhr  strongly  opposed  the  idea  that  Schlegel  could  be 
considered  in  any  way  responsible  for  De  l'Allemagne} 
Before  the  work  was  published  in  181 3  Goethe  had  read 
a  portion  of  the  manuscript  lent  him  by  C.  F.  von  Rein- 
hard,  who  had  probably  received  it  from  Villers  or  Con- 
stant. In  a  letter  to  Reinhard  the  poet  acknowledges  the 
favor  and  remarks  upon  Mme.  de  StaeTs  correct  judgment 
of  his  shorter  works.2  After  the  appearance  of  the  entire 
work  he  wrote  to  Heinrich  Meyer,  March  7,  1814,  of  his 
belief  that  the  author  had  formed  her  judgments  and  opin- 


Saxe-Weimar,    Mar.    13,    1804,   in   Lenormant :    Coppet   ct    Weimar, 
Paris,  1862. 

Cf.  Gustave  Lanson :  Histoirc  de  la  Litterature  frangaise,  Paris, 
1908,  10th  ed.,  p.  871  :  "This  Germany,  which  is  not  that  of  Heinrich 
Heine,  was  real  at  a  certain  date ;  what  interests  us  here  is  that, 
in  spite  of  Heinrich  Heine,  it  remained  until  1870  the  Germany  of 
our  writers  and  artists." 

1  "  The  chapters  on  Goethe,  North  Germany,  and  Vienna  are 
especially  excellent,  and  even  the  great  mistakes  and  errors  in  a 
number  of  instances  prove  that  the  book  bearing  her  name  cannot 
possibly  be  the  intellectual  property  of  Schlegel.  He  cannot  even 
have  read  it  over  before  its  publication."  Cf.  Lady  Blennerhassett, 
III,  p.  388. 

2  Brief e,  XXII,  p.  268,  No.  6256,  Feb.  13,  1812. 


66  Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ions  entirely  independently.1  Such  testimony  should  have 
weight,  for  if  Mme.  de  Stael  incorporated  in  her  book 
views  she  had  expressed  before  she  met  Schlegel,  and  which 
he  probably  would  not  have  ratified,  it  does  not  look  as 
though  she  were  a  blind  reflector  or  imitator  of  anyone's 
opinions  or  sentiments. 

In  a  long  and  interesting  article  entitled  Frau  von  Sta'el's 
Buck  "  De  l'Allemagne  "  und  Wilhelm  Schlegel,  a  leading 
German  critic.  Dr.  Oscar  Felix  Walzel,  has  compared  Mme. 
de  StaeTs  book  with  the  writings  of  the  German  Romantic 
School,  and  because  there  was  some  resemblance  in  con- 
tent, he  has  inferred  that  the  work  of  the  Frenchwoman 
more  or  less  reflected  the  views  of  A.  W.  Schlegel,  and 
formed  the  connecting  link  between  French  and  German 
romanticism.  ;'  Mme.  de  Stael,"  he  says,  "  has  maintained 
her  independence  where  she  had  to  judge  of  poets  and 
poetry.  In  almost  all  questions  of  culture,  science,  religion, 
and  of  plastic  art  she  has  gone  over  into  the  camp  of  the 
romanticists.  When  she  propounds  views  that  do  not  ac- 
cord with  those  of  the  romanticists,  then  these  are  pre- 
sented mostly  as  the  acquisitions  of  older  times,  as  the 
products  of  her  relations  with  Villers  and  his  circle."  2 

In  this  discussion  Walzel  has  entirely  ignored  the  fact 
that  two  persons  wholly  independent  of  each  other  may 
arrive  at  similar  conceptions  of  truth  and  philosophy. 
Because  in  many  respects  Mme.  de  StaeTs  views  coincide 
with  those  of  Schlegel,  he  has  inferred  that  she  must  neces- 
sarily have  been  influenced  by  him.  He  has  left  wholly 
out  of  consideration  her  own  Teutonic  character  and  the 

1  "  She  has  taken  incredible  pains  to  conceive  a  clear  notion  of 
us  Germans."  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  IV,  p.  163,  1883. 

2  Forschungen    zur    neueren    Literaturgeschichte,    Festgabe    fur 
Richard  Heinzel,  Weimar,  1898,  pp.  275-333. 


"  DE   L'ALLEMAGNE  "    IN    THE   MAKING  67 

sentiments  she  expressed  in  her  earlier  critical  and 
philosophical  works,  especially  in  De  la  Littcrature.  As  I 
have  already  pointed  out  in  reference  to  Corinne,  Mme.  de 
Stael  does  owe  her  appreciation  of  art  to  the  fine  critical 
sense  of  Schlegel,  but  in  literature,  ethics,  religion,  and 
philosophy,  she  exhibited  the  same  general  views  she  had 
entertained,  perhaps  dimly,  at  the  time  she  wrote  De  la 
Littcrature,  in  which  she  stated  her  preference  for  the 
literature  of  the  North.1 

Joseph  Texte,  in  his  studies  of  German  influence  in 
France,2  declares  that  Mme.  de  StaeTs  description  of  Ger- 
many is  somewhat  nebulous  and  ideal,  not  like  the  practical, 
matter-of-fact  land  of  the  present  day,  an  assertion  with 
which  I  agree.  But  this  romantic  tinge  is,  in  my  opinion, 
the  result  of  her  own  temperament,  education,  and  early 
associations.  According  to  Stendhal,  "  romantic  poetry 
is  the  poetry  of  Shakespeare,  of  Schiller,  and  of  Lord 
Byron."  3  Mme.  de  Stael  was  well  read  in  English  litera- 
ture, and  her  essay  on  Shakespeare  4  was  the  first  attempt 
in  France  to  vindicate  the  dramatist  against  the  prejudices 
of  Voltaire.  As  far  as  I  know,  no  modern  author  has 
given  a  truer  characterization  of  the  genius  of  this  poet 
of  the  North.  In  fact,  Schlegel's  delineation  of  Shake- 
speare in  his  Lectures  on  Dramatic  Art  and  Literature  5 
bears  so  many  points  of  resemblance  to  Mme.  de  StaeTs 
earlier  essay  that  one  might  infer  that  he  had  borrowed 

1  Pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  p.  253. 

8  Les  Origines  de  I  Influence  allemandc  dans  la  Littcrature  fran- 
caise  du  XIXe  Steele;  L'Influence  allcmande  dans  le  Romanticisme 
francaise;  J.  J.  Rousseau  et  les  Origines  de  Cosmopolitisme  lit- 
teraire. 

'  Cf.  Texte :  /.  /.  Rousseau,  p.  454. 

4  De  la  Littcrature,  pt.  i,  chap.  xiii. 

5  Bohn's  translation,  1909;  Lectures  22  to  27. 


68  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ideas  from  her ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  we  know  that  he  was 
engaged  on  his  translations  from  the  English  poet  before 
he  ever  met  Mme.  de  Stael.  This  apparent  similarity  in 
opinion,  to  use  Schlegel's  own  words  (in  his  discussion  of 
Calderon  and  Shakespeare),  was  due  to  the  "  same  or,  at 
least,  a  kindred  principle  ...  in  the  development  of 
both."  x  This  "  principle  common  to  both,"  again  quoting 
from  Schlegel  (comparison  of  Gozzi  with  the  foreign  mas- 
ters of  the  romantic  drama),  "  was  founded  in  nature."2 
'What  they  [Mme.  de  Stael  and  Schlegel  as  well  as 
Shakespeare  and  Calderon]  have  in  common  with  each 
other  is  the  spirit  of  romantic  poetry,  giving  utterance  to 
itself  in  literary  form."  3, 

The  testimony  of  an  eye-witness  should  have  value. 
Adam  Oehlenschlager,  the  Danish  dramatist,  who  wrote 
his  tragedy  of  Correggio  under  Mme.  de  Stael's  roof,  in 
recounting  his  visit  to  Coppet,  tells  how  his  hostess  always 
spoke  German  to  him.  She  was  then  writing  her  work  on 
Germany,  parts  of  which  she  read  each  day  to  her  circle 
of  admirers. 

"  Mme.  de  Stael,"  he  writes,  "  received  me  very  kindly 
and  asked  me  to  remain  several  weeks  at  Coppet,  all  the 
while  gracefully  jesting  with  me  about  my  faulty  French. 
I  started  then  to  speak  German  to  her ;  she  understood  that 
language  very  well,  and  her  two  children  also  understood 
and  spoke  it  very  well.  At  her  home  I  found  Benjamin 
Constant,  August  Schlegel,  the  elderly  Baron  Voght  of 
Altona,  Bonstetten  of  Geneva,  the  celebrated  Sismondi  de 
Sismondi,  and  the  Comte  de  Sabran,  the  only  one  of  all 
this  company   who   did   not   know    German.  ...  At   that 

1  Lecture  22,  p.  341. 
*  Lecture  16,  p.  227. 
8  Lecture  22,  p.  342. 


"  De  l'Allemagne"  in  the  Making  69 

time  she  was  writing  her  book  on  Germany,  and  every  day 
she  read  a  portion  of  it  to  us.  She  has  been  accused  of 
not  having  studied  herself  the  books  of  which  she  has 
spoken  in  this  work  and  of  having  submitted  completely 
to  the  judgment  of  Schlegel.  It  is  false.  She  read  German 
with  the  greatest  facility.  Schlegel  probably  did  have  some 
influence  over  her,  but  very  often  she  differed  from  him 
in  opinion,  and  she  reproved  his  partiality."  * 

This  testimony  by  Oehlenschlager  is  also  corroborated 
by  a  critic  in  the  North  American  Review  of  July  1820. 
He  writes :  "  We  happen  to  know  that  Frederick  Schlegel, 
who  taught  her  German  in  Paris  before  she  went  to  Ger- 
many, has  declared  that  he  read  with  her  most  of  the 
books  of  which  she  has  spoken  in  her  De  l'Allemagne,  and 
that  she  was  sufficiently  acquainted  with  German  litera- 
ture to  have  written  the  work  without  assistance  from 
anyone ;  and  that  August  Wilhelm  Schlegel  equally  dis- 
claims all  participation  in  its  opinions  or  its  composition. 
Moreover,  it  was  not  for  a  mind  like  Mme.  de  StaeTs  to 
borrow  tamely  from  anyone."  2 

The  opinion  of  so  excellent  a  literary  critic  as  Wieland 
is  of  importance  in  this  question.  He  says  that  Schlegel 
seems  to  have  had  very  little  influence  on  her  judgment  of 
German  literature,  whereas  her  influence  upon  the  brothers 
Schlegel  was  very  pronounced.3 

Lady  Blennerhassett,  who  likewise  considers  this  ques- 
tion, says:  "A  connoisseur,  such  as  Schlegel,  enabled  her 
to  dispense  with  the  unwieldy  compendiums,  the  Kiittners 
and  the  Kochs,  which  had  to  take  the  place  of  histories  of 

'Larousse:  Grand  Dictionnaire  universe!,  XIV,  p.  1047.  Cf. 
Stevens,  II,  pp.  40-41. 

2  XI,  pp.  138-39. 

3  Cf.  Lady  Blennerhassett.  Ill,  p.  213.  Letter  to  J.  F.  Freiherr 
von  Retzer,  Weimar,  June  20,  1808. 


jo  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

literature,  and  in  which  Mme.  de  Stael  would  probably' 
never  have  found  her  way."  x  To  this  view  I  fully  accede. 
Schlegel's  profound  erudition  enabled  Mme.  de  Stael  to 
gain  in  a  short  time  knowledge  that  might  have  required 
many  years  of  deep  research  with  the  proper  library 
facilities.  According  to  Robinson,  Schlegel  also  directed 
her  reading  to  a  certain  extent.  He  writes  in  his  Diary: 
'  She  confessed  that  in  her  selection  of  books  she  was 
guided  by  A.  W.  Schlegel ;  otherwise,  she  added,  a  whole 
life  would  not  have  been  sufficient  to  collect  such  informa- 
tion." -  In  this  way  Schlegel  opened  up  new  lines  of 
thought  for  her  fertile  mind.  He  polished  the  glass  of  her 
vision  and  enabled  her  to  define  in  more  distinct  outlines 
those  general  notions  which  she  had  perceived  but  dimly 
before.  It  was  Robinson  who  advised  Mme.  de  Stael  to 
cultivate  Schlegel's  acquaintance — Goethe  furnished  the 
letter  of  introduction  3 — and  his  opinion,  being  an  expres- 
sion of  a  deep  and  continued  interest  in  her  activities, 
should  be  final  and  decisive.  '  There  are  many  opinions 
in  the  book  which  Schlegel  probably  would  have  protested 
against  being  thought  to  have  suggested.  .  .  .  All  that  is 
best  in  that  "work,  the  section  on  life  and  manners  in  Ger- 
many, came  from  herself  alone."  4 

The  actual  work  on  De  l'Allemagne  was  an  affair  of 
grand  proportions  and  with  the  full  connivance  of  the 
large  circle  of  friends  Mme.  de  Stael  kept  about  her  at 
Coppet.  Just  as  Voltaire  held  court  at  Ferney,  so  Mme. 
de  Stael,  after  her  banishment  from  Paris,  made  the  chateau 
of  Coppet  near  Geneva  one  of  the  social  and  literary  cen- 

1  Lady  Blennerhassett,  III,  p.  386,  chap.  vi. 
2 1,  p.  422. 

3  Schriften   der    Goethe   Gesellschaft,   XIII,   pp.    172-73,    No.   96, 
1898. 

4  Diary,  I,  pp.  182-83. 


"  DE   L'ALLEMAGNE  "    IN    THE    MAKING  "J\ 

ters  of  Europe.  Since  she  could  not  go  to  visit  her  Pari- 
sian friends,  they  came  to  see  her.  Of  her  salon  Friederike 
Brun  wrote :  "  The  quintessence  of  the  best  company  is 
found  in  her  mansion.  It  is  there  by  the  law  of  affinity."  x 
Charles  Victor  Bonstetten,  the  "  Swiss  Voltaire  "  and  phi- 
losopher, said :  "  There  is  more  intellect  displayed  at  Coppet 
in  one  day  than  in  many  whole  countries  in  a  year."  x 

To  enumerate  all  the  guests  would  be  impossible.  One 
can  only  wish  that  a  register  of  names  had  been  kept  at 
Coppet  for  the  benefit  of  posterity.  In  my  investigation 
I  kept  a  partial  list  of  Mme.  de  Stael's  personal  acquaint- 
ances, and  the  mere  enumeration  of  names  would  require 
several  sheets  of  paper.  Hence  I  shall  content  myself  with 
naming  but  a  few  persons.  Besides  the  regular  members 
of  the  household  who  were  cited  by  Oehlenschlager,  and 
those  who  figure  among  the  correspondents,  there  were 
Mme.  Necker  de  Saussure,  the  cousin  and  friend  of  the 
hostess,  a  translator  and  author  of  merit ;  Mme.  Vigee  le 
Brun,  the  celebrated  artist  who  painted  Mme.  de  Stael  as 
"  Corinne  " ;  Mme.  Rilliet,  nee  Huber,  the  girlhood  friend 
of  the  hostess ;  Johannes  von  Muller,  the  Swiss  historian 
and  Prussian  educator ;  Frau  Emilie  von  Berlepsch,  the 
German  author  of  Caledonia;  Lullin  de  Chateauvieux,  the 
Swiss  agriculturist  and  later  the  author  of  the  Manuscrit 
de  Saint-Hclcne,  an  apology  of  Napoleon ;  Christian  Fried- 
rich  Tieck,  the  German  sculptor  and  brother  of  the  roman- 
ticist ;  Adelbert  von  Chamisso,  the  creator  of  Peter 
Schlemihl ;  Prince  Augustus  of  Prussia,  the  royal  suitor 
of  Mme.  Recamier ;  Karl  Ritter,  the  geographer  and 
Berlin  professor;  Vincenzo  Monti,  the  Italian  poet  and 
professor  of  eloquence  at  Pavia ;  Lacretelle,  the  journalist 
and  historian  who  wrote  Histoire  de  France  pendant  le 
1  Lond.  Quar.  R.,  CLII,  p.  16,  July,  1881. 


72  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

XVIIIe  Steele;  Baron  Cuvier,  the  famous  French  states- 
man and  naturalist,  the  founder  of  the  science  of  com- 
parative botany;  the  Prince  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 
brother-in-law  of  the  Emperor  Alexander  I.;  Rosalie  de 
Constant,  the  faithful  cousin  of  Benjamin  Constant; 
Zacharias  Werner,  the  German  dramatist,  whose  Schick- 
salstragodie,  Der  vierundszvanzigste  Februar,  was  acted  at 
the  theater  of  Coppet ;  Chateaubriand,  author  of  Atala  and 
of  the  Genie  du  Christianisme ;  Claude,  Baron  de  Barante, 
the  French  writer  and  the  prefect  of  the  Department  of 
Leman;  his  son,  Prosper,  also  a  statesman  and  historian; 
Pictet  de  Sergy,  editor  of  the  Bibliotheque;  and  a  host  of 
travelers  and  minor  writers. 

What  was  the  magnet  that  attracted  men  and  women  to 
Mme.  de  Stael?  Certainly  not  beauty  of  face  or  form, 
for  aside  from  her  large  soulful  eyes  she  had  no  feature 
particularly  pleasing.  Was  it  her  intellect  alone?  Others 
have  had  just  as  remarkable  a  mind.  Perhaps  her  un- 
usual conversational  powers?  History  records  other  bril- 
liant salonnieres.  These  qualities  alone  would  not  have 
produced  her  wonderful  ascendency  over  others.  Intel- 
lect and  eloquence  she  had,  but  of  far  more  value  were 
her  earnestness,  love  of  truth,  and  confidence  in  humanity. 
Intellect  is  not  contagious,  nor  is  conversational  talent  in- 
fectious;  but  love  begets  love,  confidence  is  the  parent  of 
confidence;  and  earnestness,  like  mirth,  is  catching.  Her 
ardent  enthusiasm  and  glowing  eloquence  aroused  in  her 
associates  a  kindred  emotion,  and  for  the  time  being  the 
mind  and  heart  of  hostess  and  guests  beat  in  unison  of 
thought  and  feeling. 
According  to  Mme.  Le  Brun,1  the  hostess  reserved  the 

1  Gribble,    p.    197.      Cf.    Stevens,    II,   chap,   xxvi,   and   Appleton's 
Journal,  May,  1881,  XXV,  p.  446. 


"  DE   L'ALLEMAGNE  "    IN    THE    MAKING  73 

morning  for  her  literary  work  and  the  afternoon  for  her 
guests.  Her  method  of  work  is  interesting,  as  it  indicates 
the  intense  desire  she  had  to  get  at  the  truth  of  things  and 
to  be  strictly  impartial.  Each  morning  she  arranged  a  new 
chapter  of  De  I' Allemagne  and  during  the  afternoon  and 
dinner  directed  the  conversation  on  that  particular  subject. 
The  next  day  she  wrote  it  out  in  full  and  corrected  the 
proof ;  then  the  manuscript  was  copied  by  her  secretary, 
after  which  she  read  passages  to  her  friends,  receiving  their 
suggestions,  approval  or  disapproval.  After  this  the  work 
was  corrected  again  and  recopied.1 

The  publication  of  a  work  of  the  scope  and  spirit  of 
De  I' Allemagne  would,  in  the  Europe  of  Napoleon,  nat- 
urally present  almost  insurmountable  difficulties.  The 
censor,  to  be  sure,  to  whom  Mme.  de  Stael,  in  accordance 
with  the  imperial  decree  of  Feb.  10,  1810,  submitted  the 
manuscript  for  approval,  suppressed  but  a  few  minor 
passages ;  the  announcement  of  the  book  was  duly  recorded 
in  the  Mercure,2  and  by  September  23,  ten  thousand  copies 
had  been  printed.  Meanwhile,  however,  Napoleon  had 
read  the  work.  He  felt  that  its  spirit  was  antagonistic  to 
his  despotic  policy ;  moreover,  he  was  mortified  that  Mme. 
de  Stael,  as  in  her  previous  work,  De  la  Litterature,  entirely 
ignored  the  existence  of  the  great  Emperor.  Accordingly 
he  ordered  his  satellite,  General  Savary,  Minister  of  the 
Police,  to  confiscate  and  destroy  the  whole  edition,  together 
with  the  manuscript ;  also  to  command  the  author  to  leave 
France  within  twenty-four  hours.  General  Savary 's  reply 
to  Mme.  de  Stael's  request  for  an  audience  with  Napoleon 
in  order  to  ask  the  reason  for  this  action  and  entreat  a 
respite  of  eight  days,  stated  that  her  exile  was  not  a  result 

1  Cf.  Liv.  Age,  CXX,  p.  36,  Jan.,  1874. 

*  Cf.  American  Review  (Walsh),  I,  p.  198,  Jan.,  1811. 


74  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

of  her  silence  regarding  Napoleon  but  of  her  absolute  lack 
of  sympathy  with  France:  her  last  work  was  not  French.1 

After  this  outrage  and  a  new  order  of  exile,  Mme.  de 
Stael  returned  to  Coppet,  instead  of  going  to  America, 
as  she  had  formerly  planned  to  do.  With  her  she  had  the 
precious  manuscript,  saved  by  the  presence  of  mind  of  her 
son  Auguste,  who  concealed  the  original  and  gave  an  im- 
perfect copy  to  the  police.  At  Coppet  she  was  virtually 
watched  as  a  prisoner  of  war  by  Napoleon's  agents.2  No 
friends  were  permitted  to  visit  her ;  and  Mme.  Recamier, 
Montmorency,  and  the  Chevalier  St.  Priest,  who  dared  to 
violate  this  order,  were  also  banished.  Schlegel  was  ex- 
pelled from  her  home  as  a  dangerous  influence ;  all  mail 
was  opened  and  read ;  and  Mme.  de  Stael  was  not  allowed 
by  the  new  imperial  prefect  of  Geneva,  Capelle,  to  journey 
any   further  than   four   leagues   from   her  estate. 

At  last,  weary  of  this  torture,  she  determined  on  flight. 
Her  aim  was  to  reach  England  by  a  roundabout  way  over 
the  Continent,  and  there  print  her  manuscript.  May  22, 
1812,  with  her  daughter  and  elder  son,  she  departed  in 
a  carriage,  apparently  only  for  a  drive,  and  escaped  to 
Vienna.  As  soon  as  the  police  discovered  their  flight, 
placards  were  posted  everywhere  for  their  detention  or 
obstruction,  and  pursuit  followed  in  hot  haste.  Through 
Moravia  and  Galicia  Mme.  de  Stael  fled,  dogged  by  spies, 
harassed  by  delays  and  hardships,  and  tortured  by  hair- 
breadth escapes,  until  July  14th  she  reached  the  Russian 
boundary,  just  a  few  days  after  the  French  had  crossed 
the  Niemen.  In  Moscow  she  was  welcomed  by  the  royal 
family,  for  Russia  was  now  the  enemy  of  Napoleon,  since 
Czar  Alexander  had  refused  to  carry  out  Napoleon's  de- 

1  Preface  to  De  l'Allemagne. 

2  Cf.  Eclectic  Review,  XXXIV,  p.  418,  Nov.,  1821. 


"  DE   L'ALLEMAGNE  "    IN    THE   MAKING  75 

structive  Continental  System.  But  the  French  were  ad- 
vancing; there  was  no  safety  for  Mme.  de  Stael  in  Mos- 
cow ;  accompanied  by  the  Czar,  she  proceeded  to  St. 
Petersburg.  In  this  city  were  congregated  many  of  the 
enemies  of  Napoleon,  among  them  the  German  poet  Arndt, 
Dornberg,  and  the  Freiherr  vom  Stein.  One  evening  be- 
fore a  small  company  she  read  some  portions  of  her  work 
on  Germany,  including  the  chapter  on  Enthusiasm.  "  It 
touched  me  deeply,"  the  Freiherr  wrote  August  I  to  his 
wife,  "  through  the  depth  and  nobility  of  thought  and 
feeling,  expressed  with  an  eloquence  that  reaches  the 
heart."  x 

September  7th,  the  day  of  the  French  victory  at  Boro- 
dina,  witnessed  her  departure  for  Stockholm.  Here  she 
saw  her  old-time  friend,  Jean  Bernadotte,  a  former  mar- 
shal of  France  and  the  brother-in-law  of  Joseph  Bona- 
parte, and  influenced  him  to  become  an  active  power  in 
the  defection  of  the  German  princes  from  the  French 
allegiance.  Mme.  de  Stael  remained  all  winter  in  Stock- 
holm, and  her  home  there  served  as  an  organized  secret 
service  bureau  for  the  European  courts.  February  1813 
was  issued  a  pamphlet,  Sur  le  Systcme  Continental  et  sur  ses 
Rapports  avec  la  Suede,  which  bore  Schlegel's  name  on  the 
second  reprint,  but  was  probably  dictated  by'  Mme.  de 
Stael.  Mme.  de  Chastenay  could  write  with  perfect  truth 
in  her  Memoires:  "  In  Europe  there  are  three  powers:  Eng- 
land, Russia,  and  Mme.  de  Stael."  2 

In  June  Mme.  de  Stael  sailed  with  her  children  for  Eng- 
land. Her  reception  everywhere  in  London  was  a  con- 
tinual ovation.  It  is  said  that  people  mounted  chairs  to 
get  a  glimpse  of  her  at  receptions.     Byron  even  journeyed 

1  Cf.  Lady  Blennerhassett,  III,  p.  345. 
3  Ed.  Review,  CCII,  p.  107,  July,  1905. 


y6  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

sixty  miles  to  Middleton,  the  home  of  Lord  Jersey,  to  be 
presented  to  her,  where,  as  he  later  wrote,  "  In  common 
with  many  others  I  bowed  not  the  knee,  but  the  head  and 
heart  in  homage  to  an  extraordinary  woman,  driven  from 
her  own  country  by  the  most  extraordinary  man."  * 

In  London  she  sold  her  manuscript  to  the  publisher 
Murray  for  fifteen  hundred  guineas,  and  Robinson,  who 
had  assisted  her  in  philosophy  in  Weimar,  helped  draw 
up  the  contract.2  Murray  himself  attended  to  the  issue 
of  the  French  edition,  and  had  another  printer,  S.'Gosnell, 
prepare  a  similar  edition  of  the  English  translation.  As 
fate  would  have  it,  the  French  text  appeared  the  same 
month  that  the  decisive  victory  of  Leipzig  was  won  by 
the  Allies  (Oct.  16,  18,  and  19,  1813)  ;  the  former  the 
vindication  of  German  intellect,  the  latter  of  German 
freedom.  The  following  year  an  American  reprint  from 
the  English  translation  was  published  in  New  York,  and,  to 
quote  Lamartine,  its  contents  became  not  only  "  the  sub- 
ject of  the  conversation  of  Europe,"  but  of  America  as 
well.3 

1  Elisabeth  de  Nolde  :  Mine,  de  Stael  and  Benjamin  Constant,  New 
York  and  London,  1907,  p.  128. 

2  Diary,  I,  p.  416. 

8  Cf.  Blackwood's  Mag.,  Oct.,   1823.     "  Madame  de   Stael's  Ger- 
many is  in  every  hand." 


CHAPTER  IV 

CLASSICISM  AND  ROMANTICISM  IN 
DE  L'ALLEMAGNE 

Since  Mme.  de  StaeTs  De  VAllemagne  stands,  for  a 
Frenchwoman  at  least,  at  the  parting  ways  of  traditional 
literary  criticism,  the  question  of  her  criteria  of  taste  is 
an  important  one.  Educated,  as  she  was,  in  the  traditions 
and  atmosphere  of  French  classicism,  she  quite  naturally 
developed  her  aesthetic  convictions  along  these  classic  lines. 
It  is  a  fascinating  study  to  trace  thus,  how  she  began  to 
doubt  the  infallibility  of  the  classical  code,  and  how  the 
new  aesthetic  principles  embodied  in  the  works  of  German 
literature  gradually  gained  ascendency  in  her  mind.  It  is 
most  fascinating,  too,  to  watch  in  her  the  struggle  between 
the  Romantic  and  the  Germanic  spirit,  and  to  observe  the 
process  of  liberation  which  the  latter  produces  in  her — a 
process  symbolic  of  the  liberation  brought  about  by  her 
book  in  the  mind  of  Carlyle  and  many  others. 

The  French  classical  school,  as  is  well  known,  was  in- 
augurated by  the  Pleiade.  It  chose  the  Alexandrine  as 
the  French  heroic  measure,  advised  a  special  poetic  diction, 
and  advocated  the  imitation  of  the  ancient  classics  and  the 
substitution  of  their  forms  of  poetic  expression — the  ode, 
epic,  and  satire — for  the  native  national  forms  of  poetry. 
This  new  French  school  was  characterized  by  a  spirit  of 
intellectual  aristocracy;  and  its  less  capable  followers 
loaded  the  language  with  useless  terms  and  ingenious  peri- 
phrases. In  this  way  the  ancient  grace  and  simplicity  of 
movement  were  gradually  lost. 

77 


78  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

"  Finally  Malherbe  came,"  says  Boileau.  At  first  a  fol- 
lower of  Ronsard,  Malherbe  reformed  the  reformation 
started  by  his  predecessor.  He  aimed  at  purity  of  lan- 
guage, placed  reason  above  sensibility,  and  advocated  gen- 
eral rather  than  individual  sentiment.  The  task  begun 
by  Malherbe  was  completed  by  Boileau  in  his  Art  poctique. 
Granted  that  the  poet  possesses  genius,  his  work  is  naught, 
unless  it  is  founded  upon  truth  and  reason.  Nature  is,  of 
course,  the  model,  but  it  is  nature  discerned  and  corrected 
by  reason.  Only  the  literature  that  is  true  to  this  kind  of 
nature  will  survive  the  test  of  time.  Inasmuch  as  the 
ancient  classics  have  been  so  tried  and  still  have  perma- 
nent value,  they  should  be  taken  as  guides  in  all  literary 
production. 

Boileau's  influence,  like  Pope's  in  England,  was  very 
salutary  for  his  time ;  but  unfortunately  his  range  of  vision 
was  too  limited  and  his  survey  of  literature  too  narrow  to 
include  the  truths  and  splendors  of  mediaeval  art  and 
poetry.  Of  his  work  Mme.  de  Stael  writes :  "  In  perfect- 
ing the  taste  and  language  of  his  country,  Boileau  has 
given  to  French  genius,  it  cannot  be  denied,  a  disposition 
very  unfavorable  for  poetic  composition.  He  has  spoken 
only  of  what  ought  to  be  avoided ;  he  has  insisted  only 
upon  the  precepts  of  reason  and  wisdom,  which  have  in- 
troduced into  literature  a  sort  of  pedantry,  very  prejudicial 
to  the  sublime  soaring  of  the  arts."  1  This  reign  of  reason 
exerted,  nevertheless,  a  firm  and  lasting  influence  in  lit- 
erature. Even  as  late  as  1859  J.  J.  Weiss,  speaking  of 
Regnard,  pleads  the  ascendency  of  mind  over  heart  and 
imagination.  "  Listen  and  tell  me,  if  mind,  pure  mind, 
mind  temperate  and  keen,  mind  which  restrains  and  gov- 
erns itself,  the  most  intimate  essence  of  ourselves,  in  short, 
1  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  p.  281,  pt.  ii,  chap.  x. 


Classicism  and  Romanticism  79 

people  of  Paris,  of  Gascony,  and  of  Champagne,  cannot 
be  a  source  of  poetry  quite  as  well  as  exalted  and  dark 
imagination,  furious  passions,  the  heart  which  gnaws  itself 
and  hypochondria." 

To  what  extent  did  Mme.  de  Stael  share  these  views  of 
French  classicism  ?  We  have  already  noted,  in  a  preceding 
section,1  how  ten  years  before  the  publication  of  De 
I'Allemagne,  before  even  she  had  devoted  herself  to  a  per- 
sonal research  of  the  motive  forces  of  German  literature 
and  their  outward  manifestations,  Mme.  de  Stael  had 
grasped,  almost  as  well  as  ever  afterwards,  the  essence  of 
German  culture  in  her  work  De  la  Littcrature.  We  have 
seen  what  primary  stress  she  laid  on  the  emotional  element 
in  literature  as  against  a  mere  polish  and  delicacy  of  style 
coupled  with  a  development  of  dazzling  wit.  Voltaire  thus 
she  would  appraise  as  much  inferior  to  Racine  in  that  he 
lacks  vital  interest  in  active  life  from  other  than  a  rational 
standpoint.2  Rousseau — Mme.  de  Stael  pursues  this 
thought — discovered  nothing,  but  he  set  everything  ablaze 
by  searching  into  the  immutable  nature  of  man :  the  senti- 
ment of  equality  produces  more  disturbance  than  that  of 
liberty,  conscious  feeling  is  of  superior  worth  to  mental 
conviction.3 

Reason,  to  be  sure,  has  value  as  a  mentor  to  approve 
that  which  enthusiasm  has  exalted.  It  judges  the  other 
faculties,  but  does  not  take  the  place  of  soul.  If  man  but 
studies  himself,  he  will  find  that  the  love  of  virtue  pre- 
cedes the  faculty  of  reflection,  that  it  is  involuntary  and 
connected  with  his  physical  nature.  Moreover  such  in- 
nate love  of  virtue  constitutes  a  basic  element  of  religion, 


1  Cf.  pp.  37-41. 

2  Pt.  i,  chap.  xiii. 

8  Pt.  i,  chap,  xx  ;  pt.  ii,  chap.  i. 


8o  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

for  divinity  is  but  the  power  of  truth  united  to  natural 
eloquence.1 

This  faculty  of  arousing  all  the  emotions  of  the  heart 
by  the  expression  of  simple  truth  and  pure  sentiments  im- 
plies an  acquaintance  with  the  most  useful  secret  of  ele- 
gant style.2  But  what  is  style?  It  is  not  an  art  that  can 
be  acquired  by  the  understanding,  it  is  the  genuine  out- 
pouring of  the  heart  and  is  inspired  by  the  conscience  of  an 
honest  man.3  If  an  author  is  to  acquire  eloquence,  he  must 
express  his  own  natural  impulses ;  emotion,  character  must 
animate  his  writings.4  Therefore  good  taste  is  not  de- 
pendent upon  rules,  but  upon  the  impression  created  in  an 
unbiased  mind.  If  a  literary  work  makes  one  feel  nobler 
and  better,  it  has  genius  and  beauty,  though  it  violates  all 
the  so-called  rules  of  taste.  Far  better  is  a  drama  full  of 
great  faults  but  with  beauty  of  genius  stamped  upon  it, 
than  a  writing  of  mediocre  thought  and  sentiment  though 
polished  and  correct  in  form.  Intrinsic  worth  supersedes 
outward  elegance. 

Moral  nature  is  more  energetic  than  the  French  tragedies 
have  hitherto  described  it.  The  splendor  derived  from  ex- 
alted rank  has  introduced  into  the  French  tragic  drama  a  cer- 
tain frigidity  in  depicting  the  emotions  of  the  soul.  Veiled 
expressions,  restrained  sentiments,  and  guarded  proceed- 
ings do  indeed  require  great  talent  of  representation,  but 
the  passions  cannot  be  portrayed  with  that  heart-rending 
energy,  that  deep  penetration,  which  is  inspired  only  by 
absolute  independence.5 

Although    the    classic    wTorks    of    antiquity    exhibit    such 

1  Pt.  ii,  chaps,  vi  and  viii. 

2  Pt.  ii,  chap.  i. 

3  Pt  ii,  chap.  vii. 

4  Pt.  i,  chap.  xvi. 
ePt.  ii,  chap.  v. 


Classicism  and  Romanticism  8i 

excellent  qualities  of  form  and  subject-matter  that  we 
cannot  but  admire  their  simple  and  beautiful  taste  in  the 
fine  arts  and  their  energy  and  enthusiasm  for  everything 
good  and  sublime,  we  should  study  them,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  slavish  imitation,  but  only  for  the  sake  of  appre- 
ciation. They  are  not  infallible  criteria.  Their  peculiar 
characteristics  harmonize  with  the  individuality  of  their 
nation  and  are  indigenous  to  classic  soil ;  but  they  do  not 
accord  with  modern  civilization.  Life  is  progressive  and 
modern  drama  has  advanced  in  that  it  displays  not  only  the 
art  of  poetry,  but  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  human 
passions.  Not  one  of  the  great  Greek  tragedians  can 
equal  the  perfection  of  the  English  writers  in  displaying 
human  woe  and  that  melancholy  which  is  the  genuine  in- 
spiration of  true  genius,  and  so  distinctive  of  the  present 
age.1  The  grand  effects  of  the  English  and  German  drama- 
tists, especially  in  depicting  terror,  were  not  borrowed  from 
Greek  or  mythological  subjects,  but  from  superstitions 
suitable  to  the  credulity  of  their  time.2  They  have  dis- 
covered the  art  of  exciting  by  pictures  of  distress  those 
sublime  emotions  that  are  felt  by  all  energetic  minds. 

Also  in  the  representation  of  love  by  the  author  of 
Werther  and  by  the  English  poets,  we  find  a  perfection 
that  proves  beyond  a  doubt  the  genius  of  the  writer,  and 
shows  that  in  all  literary  works,  the  aim  of  which  is  suc- 
cess, we  find  par  excellence  the  general  spirit  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  century  in  which  the  author  lived;  in  short, 
we  find  a  popular  element.2 

Nay,  more,  in  imitating  the  ancients,  the  natural  genius 
of  modern  nations  is  impaired,  for  the  beauties  of  a  litera- 

1  Pt.  i,  chap,  ii;  pt.  ii,  chap.  v. 

2  Pt.  i,  chaps,  xi  and  xiv. 
8  Pt.  i,  chap.  xi. 


82  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ture  are  dependent  upon  the  imagination,  language,  climate, 
and  a  variety  of  circumstances  which  cannot  be  transported 
elsewhere,  whereas  defects  are  very  contagious  and  this 
affectation  checks  the  source  of  all  truth,  and  renders  truth, 
thus  arrayed,  a  disgusting  bauble.1  The  models  of  an- 
tiquity should  be  studied  in  order  to  gain  their  secret  of 
good  taste,  not  to  fill  modern  works  with  the  ideas  and 
inventions  of  the  ancients ;  for  the  impression  produced  by 
the  poet  who  first  succeeded  in  imparting  a  certain  idea 
will  be  stronger  than  all  subsequent  repetitions  of  the  same 
theme.2 

The  French  Revolution  inaugurated  a  new  era — a  new 
condition  of  social,  political,  and  intellectual  life.  Man  is 
now  the  object  of  attention,  and  the  dignity  of  common 
life  and  of  current  events  is  of  more  value  than  mere 
conventional  ideals.  Even  the  Greek  metaphysicians, 
though  justly  renowned  for  their  sensibility  and  melan- 
choly, have  not  the  power  to  create  emotion,  as  do  the 
modern  philosophers.  Their  virtue  consisted  merely  in 
love  of  fame  and  stoicism — external  rather  than  internal 
qualities.3  Modern  philosophy  is  superior  to  theirs  in  tha-t 
it  represents  ideas  and  sentiments  as  inseparably  connected, 
and  shows  that  emotion  incites  to  reflection  and  gives  to 
the  mind  a  rapid  and  profound  penetration.4 

From  the  peculiar  nature  of  modern  philosophy  and 
from  the  melancholy,  imaginative  character  of  the  present 
age,  has  arisen  the  new  and  powerful  force  of  modern 
eloquence.  Even  among  the  ancients  there  is  not  a  single 
writer  nor  a  single  orator  that  can  equal  Bossuet,  Rous^ 

1  Pt.  i,  chap.  x. 

2  Pt.  i,  chap.  xix.  Cf.  pt.  ii,  chap,  v,  and  pt.  i,  chap.  ii. 

3  Pt.  i,  chaps,  iv-v. 

4  Pt.  i,  chap,  xx ;  pt.  ii,  chap.  ix. 


Classicism  and  Romanticism  83 

seau,  the  English  or  the  German  in  the  sublime  art  of 
moving  the  heart.1  This  then  is  the  new  ideal  of  modern 
civilization — power  of  heart,  dignity  of  man,  anal  mutual 
service.  This  new  ideal  is  already  well  portrayed  in  the 
English  and  German  literatures,  and  while  the  French 
should  not  imitate  their  mode  of  representation,  yet  their 
underlying  sentiment  merits  close  attention.  Their  philo- 
sophic spirit,  making  common  property  of  the  ideas  and 
system  of  political  equality,  ought  to  give  to  French  trage- 
dies a  new  character.  There  is  no  reason  for  rejecting 
historical  subjects,  but  great  men  ought  to  be  portrayed 
with  those  sentiments  that  arouse  whole-hearted  sympathy. 
Instead  of  trying  to  perfect  the  ideas  of  conventionality, 
the  aim  should  be  to  ennoble  nature,  to  confer  dignity 
upon  commonplace  circumstance,  and  to  paint  with  true 
simplicity  the  great  events  of  life.2 

From  the  foregoing  statements  it  is  evident  that  Mme.  de 
StaeTs  criterion  of  literary  criticism  bore,  in  its  theoretic 
and  stimulating  aspects,  close  relation  to  the  ideals  of  the 
German  writers — of  Goethe  and  of  Schiller,  those  early 
leaders  of  the  German  Romantic  School.  This  new  Ger- 
man literature  was  characterized  by  a  synthetic  and  sub- 
jective spirit.  Individualism  and  nationality  were  its 
watchwords ;  feeling,  imagination,  and  enthusiasm  the 
underlying  forces  requiring  expression ;  the  development 
of  the  highest  human  culture  its  goal.  Religion  was  but 
a  name  for  noble  feelings  and  aspirations ;  morality  was 
dependent  upon  action  devoid  of  personal  interest  and 
upon  the  impulsive  inclinations  of  the  heart ;  sim- 
plicity meant  the  natural  outpourings  of  the  soul  and 
the     involuntary    gesture    of     character;     philosophy    be- 

1  Pt.  i,  chap.  ix. 

2  Pt.  ii,  chap,  v,  p.  310. 


84  Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

came  the  study  of  man  and  of. nature  in  all  their  varied 
aspects. 

In  the  present  work  Mme.  de  Stael  makes  no  mention 
of  the  word  "  romantique,"  and  I  do  not  know  of  any  in- 
stance of  its  use  in  French  literature  at  this  time.  How- 
ever, she  does  use  the  expression  "  romanesque  "  to  desig- 
nate the  poetry  of  chivalry  in  the  literature  of  the  North. 
Also  in  De  l'Allemagne  she  states  that  "  romantique  "  is 
a  name  given  in  Germany  to  the  poetry  born  of  chivalry 
and  Christianity.1  Despite  the  difference  of  nomenclature, 
the  underlying  idea  is  the  same ;  and  it  is  evident  that  she 
had  the  conception  of  the  romantic  prior  to  her  acquaint- 
ance with  Schlegel.2 

If  we  now  pass  to  Mme.  de  StaeTs  critical  conceptions 
as  evidenced  by  De  l'Allemagne  after  a  more  careful  study 
of  the  German  authors  in  their  native  language,  we  shall 
find  the  same  general  approximation  with  German  Ro- 
manticism, coupled  with  adherence  to  the  formal  elements 
of  Classicism. 

The  difference  between  the  French  and  German  theaters 
is  again  laid  to  the  divergence  in  national  taste,3  because 
between  minds  developed  in  solitude  and  those  formed  in 
society  there  must  arise  wholly  different  conceptions  of 
art,  literature,  philosophy,  and  life.  All  that  relates  to 
action,  intrigue,  interest  of  events,  external  life,  is  better 
conceived  by  the  French,  but  all  that  depends  on  the  im- 
pressions of  the  heart,  on  the  development  of  strong  pas- 
sions, on  the  portrayal  of  character,  is  much  better  treated 
by  the  Germans. 

1  De  la  Litterature,  pt.  i,  chap,  x,  p.  247;  De  l'Allemagne,  I,  p.  310, 
pt.  ii,  chap.  v. 

2  Cf.  also  pp.  66-70. 

8  Pt.  ii,  chaps,  i  and  xv. 


Classicism  and  Romanticism  85 

Nature  is  not  always  grand  and  majestic  in  her  various 
phases  of  thought  and  action.  She  unites  the  sublime  with 
the  ridiculous  and  thereby  relieves  the  strained  tension  of 
mind  and  feeling.  To  mingle  thus  the  comic  and  the 
pathetic,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  be  perfectly  natural, 
for  anything  artificial  spoils  the  effect.  Such  is  the  art 
of  a  great  but  simple  genius,  one  who  understands  the 
human  heart,  a  genius  as  Shakespeare,  who  knows  how  to 
represent  that  union  of  opposing  elements  which  resembles 
a  smile  in  the  midst  of  tears  on  a  child's  countenance.  To 
be  sure  these  contrasts  in  the  foreign  drama  sometimes 
seem  rather  unreal,  and  nature  appears  exaggerated,  yet 
that  assumed  calmness  of  many  French  tragic  characters 
is  just  as  great  an  affectation,  for  it  claims  a  superiority 
of  soul  that  does  not  accord  with  true  dramatic  art. 

The  French  classical  drama,  this  book  reiterates,  con- 
siders the  three  unities  as  indispensable  to  theatrical  illu- 
sion, whereas  only  that  of  action  is  essential.  For  the 
true  action  of  a  character  cannot  be  developed  in  simply 
twenty-four  hours  and  in  one  place,  but  requires  a  long 
space  of  time  and  many  different  situations.  F.oreigners 
make  the  illusion  consist  in  the  painting  of  character,  in 
the  truth  of  language,  and  in  the  exact  portrayal  of  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  country  represented.  Illusion 
is  but  the  semblance  of  reality  and  is  made  possible  only 
by  the  emotion  it  excites  in  us.  And  if  change  of  place  and 
extension  of  time  add  to  this  emotion,  the  illusion  is  more 
perfect.  Hence  rules  are  but  the  itinerary  of  genius,  to 
show  the  way  others  have  passed,  but  are  not  themselves 
its  vade-mecum.  '  Nothing  in  life  ought  to  be  stationary, 
and  art  is  petrified  when  it  no  longer  changes."  1 

Likewise  the  French  drama  borrows  its  material  from 
1  II,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xv,  p.  16. 


86  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

classical  sources  instead  of  from  its  own  religious  and 
historical  recollections.  Of  the  great  tragic  poets,  only 
that  "prince  of  jesters,"  Voltaire,  has  drawn  any  subjects 
from  modern  life  and  has  depicted  emotions  that  appeal  to 
humanity.1 

In  regard  then  to  these  varieties  of  dramatic  art  only 
national  taste  can  decide.  Nothing  would  be  more  absurd 
than  to  try  to  impose  upon  all  nations  the  same  dramatic 
system.  If  foreigners  have  a  different  conception  of  the 
theater  from  the  French,  it  is  neither  through  ignorance 
nor  barbarism,  but  because  of  profound  reflections  which 
are  most  worthy  of  examination.  In  England  all  classes 
admire  Shakespeare,  but  in  France  only  the  cultured  few 
appreciate  the  refined  sublimity  of  the  classical  tragedies. 

As  in  the  drama,  so  in  lyric  poetry,  the  despotism  of 
alexandrines  prevents  one  from  expressing  in  verse 
thoughts  of  real  poetic  worth,  for  the  alexandrine  verse 
necessitates  a  general  color  and  an  established  accent;  and 
the  most  impassioned  movements  must  rest  on  this  pedestal 
as  on  an  essential  postulate  of  art.  On  the  contrary  the 
German  hexameters,  and  especially  the  unrhymed  iambic 
measures,  portray  "  the  harmony  of  nature  inspired  by 
emotion."  The  lyric  verse  of  Voltaire,  for  example, 
though  graceful,  is  but  the  expression  of  "  the  spirit  of  the 
most  brilliant  society,"  2  whereas  Goethe,  by  a  few  slight 
touches,  awakens  in  the  soul  the  most  profound  and  sub- 
lime impressions.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  poetry 
he  is  an  absolute  master  of  nature,  for  poetic  taste  is  de- 
pendent upon  nature  and,  like  nature,  is  always  creative. 
Likewise  the  German  poet  comprehends  the  physical  world, 
not  only  as  a  poet  but  as  a  brother,  and  in  his  verse  he 

1  Pt.  ii,  chap.  vi. 

2 1,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xiii,  p.  327. 


Classicism  and  Romanticism  87 

depicts  that  inner  sympathy  existing  between  man  and  the 
universe.1 

One  of  the  great  sources  of  poetic  effect  in  Germany  is 
terror — that  relic  of  northern  mythology — the  fruit  of 
those  old  popular  errors  and  superstitions  which,  like 
shadows,  accompany  the  realities  of  history  and  religion. 
Through  the  introduction  of  specters  and  magic  Shake- 
speare has  produced  wonderful  effects,  and  poetry  cannot 
be  popular,  if  it  despises  anything  which  spontaneously 
excites  the  imagination.  Hence  the  French  poets  should 
not  disdain  to  avail  themselves  of  this  potent  factor,  but 
rather  should  aim  to  treat  it  with  taste  and  genius. 

A  great  advantage  of  the  Germanic  dialects  in  poetry 
is  the  variety  and  beauty  of  their  epithets,  a  simple  word 
is  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  countless  forms  which  awaken 
numerous  recollections ;  in  the  French  language,  on  the 
other  hand,  one  says  only  what  one  means  to  say,  nothing 
less  and  nothing  more.  Because  of  this  independent  spirit 
of  the  German  language  there  is  no  "poetry  more  impres- 
sive or  more  varied  than  that  of  Germany." 2  For  this 
reason  even  Racine  would  be  unable  to  translate  into 
French  verse  Pindar,  Petrarch,  Klopstock  without  denat- 
uralizing their  original  character.3 

Then,  again,  a  work  should  express  the  characteristics 
of  modern  times  and  not  be  an  imitation  of  a  spirit  no 
longer  existing  among  the  people.  Those  writers  who  en- 
deavor to  modify  modern  taste  by  that  of  the  ancients,  or 
vice  versa,  are  almost  always  affected  in  style ;  no  writer  of 
our  time  can  succeed  in  composing  the  poetry  of  the  ancients. 
It  would  be  much  better  were  our  religion  and  customs  to 

1  Pt.  ii,  chaps,  xii,  xiii,  and  xiv. 

2  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  ix,  p.  268. 
8  I,  pt.  ii,  chap.  ix. 


88  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

create  for  us  a  modern  poetry,  as  beautiful  in  its  own 
proper  nature  as  that  of  the  ancients.1  Moreover  those 
customs  and  that  religion,  the  effects  of  which  have  been 
almost  effaced  by  time,  present  man  too  much  as  an  ideal 
being  hardly  touching  the  earth;  whereas  in  the  historical 
events  of  modern  times  we  feel  the  warmth  of  our  own 
existence  and  of  our  own  emotions.2  Literature,  in  a  word, 
should  be  national.  It  should  be  indigenous  to  the  soil  and 
appeal  to  all  classes.  It  should  have  a  popular  element. 
It  is  here  that  Mme.  de  Stael,  through  a  profound  study  of 
German  literature,  emphasizes  more  strongly  the  idea  of 
the  popularity  (Volkstiimlichkeit)  of  literature  which 
claims  to  be  national,  a  conception  to  which  she  had  al- 
ready referred  in  De  la  Littcrature  in  connection  with 
Shakespeare  and  Goethe.3  The  French,  the  most  classicistic 
of  all  modern  literatures,  is  admired  only  by  the  educated 
in  Europe  and  is  practically  unknown  to  the  French  peo- 
ple and  bourgeoisie.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  an 
imitation  and  borrowed  from  another  civilization,  not 
native  to  the  Gallic  soil  and  temperament.4 

The  literature  that  best  fulfills  the  conditions  of  mo- 
dernity, nationality,  popularity,  individuality,  and  feeling, 
Mme.  de  Stael  declares,  is  the  so-called  romantic  literature 
of  Germany,  and  its  most  worthy  representatives  are 
Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Burger.5  The  poems  of  Goethe  and 
of  Burger  are  set  to  music  and  sung  by  all  classes  in  Ger- 
many from  the  Rhine  to  the  Baltic,  for  they  are  the  ex- 
pression of  the  genius  of  the  people.  This  new  Germanic 
literature,  moreover,  is  by  no  means  in  its  infancy.     It  is 

1  II,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xxv,  p.  260.    Cf.  chap.  xii. 

2  Pt.  ii,  chap.  xxii. 

*  Pt.  i,  chaps,  xiii  and  xvii. 
4  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xi,  p.  289. 
8  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xiii,  p.  322. 


Classicism  and  Romanticism  89 

the  literature  of  a  nation  most  learned  in  the  classics,  a 
nation  which,  through  its  habits,  character,  and  philosophy, 
has  come  to  prefer  the  legends  of  modern  chivalry  to  the 
antique  pagan  mythology  of  Greece  and  of  Rome. 

It  is  a  literature  susceptible  of  continued  growth  and 
improvement  because  its  roots  are  in  its  own  soil.  It  ex- 
presses the  religion,  it  repeats  the  history  of  its  people. 
Its  origin  is  ancient  but  not  of  the  ancients.  Romantic 
literature  is,  in  fact,  the  true  literature  of  the  human 
soul,1 — the  same  conclusion  Mine,  de  Stael  reaches  in  her 
earlier  work,  De  la  Litterature. 

The  French  critics,  who  were  steeped  in  traditional  class- 
icism, reproached  Mme.  de  Stael  for  cultivating  the  vague, 
confused  expressions  of  the  German  taste,  and  for  adopt- 
ing a  new  manner,  "  the  romantic."  In  answer  to  this  Jean 
Paul,  in  his  review  of  De  I'Allemagne,  maintains  that  her 
German  and  English  sympathies  have  affected  but  slightly 
her  French  taste  and  style.2  xA.n  enigma  indeed !  To 
French  eyes,  a  "  romanticist  "  ;  to  German,  a  "  classicist  "  ! 
In  reality  she  was  a  combination  of  both.  While  her  con- 
ception of  form  remained  chiefly  that  of  French  classicism, 
her  "  romantic  "  ideals  were  largely  those  of  the  so-called 
German  "  classic  "  writers,  of  Goethe  and  of  Schiller,  es- 
pecially of  the  former,  the  idol  of  the  early  German  ro- 
manticists. In  fact,  Mme.  de  Stael  was  a  connecting  link 
between  the  eighteenth  and  the  nineteenth  century :  in  her 
appreciation  of  the  excellent  features  of  French  classicism 
she  belongs  to  the  eighteenth  century;  in  her  exaltation  of 
romanticism    (German  classicism)   she  opens  the  new  era. 

1  I.  pt.  ii,  chap,  xi,  p.  291. 
'  The    Frenchman    will    be    willing    to    pardon    our    author    her 
German  or  British  feeling  when  he  finds  in  the  chapters  on  classic 
and  romantic  art  how  little  that   feeling  has  prejudiced  her  taste 
against  the  Gallic  art  of  writing."    Werke,  XIX,  pp.  170-71. 


cp  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

A  defender  of  the  good  in  the  former,  she  is  the  prophetess 
of  the  latter. 

One  would  prefer,  however,  to  discard  these  much 
abused  terms,  classic  and  romantic,  and  say  that  Mme.  de 
Stael's  chief  standard  was  popular  and  national  individ- 
uality, a  standard  preached  most  efficiently  by  Herder.  If 
a  literary  work  expressed  the  peculiar  genius  of  a  people, 
it  was  a  masterpiece ;  if  not,  a  failure.  She  admired  Racine, 
Shakespeare,  Goethe  (Werther),  Schiller,  and  Burger  be- 
cause their  writings  reflect  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
their  respective  nations ;  she  disliked  Berlin,  because  it 
imitated  French  life ;  she  considered  Wieland  a  Frenchified 
German  and  hoped  that  he  would  have  no  followers.  In 
all  her  writings  she  preached  against  affectation  and  imita- 
tion and  advocated  individualism  and  nationality.  "  French- 
men of  sense,  whenever  they  travel,  do  not  like  to  find 
among  foreigners  the  French  spirit ;  rather  do  they  seek 
those  who  unite  national  to  individual  originality.  .  .  . 
The  French  value  in  foreign  literature  only  its  indigenous 
beauty.  There  is  no  nature,  no  life  in  imitation ;  and,  in 
general,  to  all  these  minds,  may  be  applied  the  eulogy  pro- 
nounced by  Orlando  in  Ariosto  upon  his  mare  which  he 
is  dragging  after  him.  '  She  possesses,'  he  said,  '  all  the 
good  qualities  imaginable ;  she  has  however  one  fault ;  she 
is  dead.'"1 

1  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  pp.  89-90. 


CHAPTER  V 

ESSENTIALS  OF  GERMAN  CULTURE  IN 
DE  L'ALLEMAGNE 

Unknown  to  the  rest  of  the  world  which  was  then 
under  the  sway  of  French  civilization,  there  had  developed 
in  Germany  during  the  eighteenth  century  a  new  culture, 
culminating  in  a  new  ideal  of  man  and  a  new  view  and 
attitude  toward  the  world.1  While  the  development  of 
the  new  culture  was  essentially  an  unconscious  unfolding 
of  the  very  soul  of  the  German  people,  it  took  place  at  the 
same  time  in  conscious  opposition  to  the  principal  con- 
ceptions of  French  civilization  as  expressed  in  the  life  and 
literature  of  that  nation.  It  was  especially  during  the  so- 
called  Storm  and  Stress  period  that  the  new  Germanic 
ideal  of  man  broke  forth  in  its  radiant  splendor.  In  the 
revolt  against  the  false  authority  of  arbitrary  rules  and 
conventional  forms  regulating  art  and  life,  the  dormant 
Germanic  love  of  freedom  asserted  itself,  and  became  the 
ruling  force  of  the  new  cultural  development.  An  ardent 
desire  for  a  new,  original  life  seized  the  foremost  exponents 
of  the  nation  and  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  "  heart  "  as 
the  only  living  spring  of  human  life,  and  the  imagination 
as  the  real  creative  faculty,  the  fountain  of  idealism. 

The  new  conception  of  man  found  its  expression  in  a 
literature    that    differed    absolutely    and    radically    both    in 

1  Cf.  Schiller's  poem,  Die  deutsche  Muse. 

"  Ruhmend  darf's  der  Deutsche  sagen, 
Hoher  darf  das  Herz  ihm  schlagen, 
Selbst  erschuf  er  sich  den  Wert." 

9i 


92  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

content  and   form   from  the  long  prevailing  standards   of 
French  classicism. 

In  his  famous  stanzas  to  Goethe  on  the  occasion  of  the 
revival  of  Voltaire's  Mahomet  on  the  Weimar  stage,  Schiller 
proudly  contrasts  this  new  spirit  of  national  German  poetry 
with  that  of  the  French  drama.  It  was  Goethe  himself, 
he  says,  who  had  led  German  art  from  the  tyrannous 
captivity  of  rules  back  to  truth  and  nature.  The  noble 
spirit  which  German  poetry  breathed  could  not  live  and 
thrive,  as  French  classicism  did,  under  the  despotism  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  false  greatness  of  a  Louis  XIV. 
It  could  develop  only  from  its  own  innate  sources,  and 
coupled  with  truth,  it  could  be  felt  in  all  its  force  and 
freedom  only  by  free  souls.  A  faithful  picture  of  nature 
had  displaced  the  pomp  of  French  poetical  oratory,  and 
human  actions  and  human  feelings  had  overcome  the  false 
rigorism  of  conventional  customs  and  morality.  It  is  the 
deep  inner  truth  that  is  revealed  in  the  ideal  world  created 
by  the  imagination. 

Mme.  de  Stael  could  not  have  known  Schiller's  poem, 
when  she  wrote  her  book  De  la  Litterature.  It  is  there- 
fore all  the  more  remarkable  and  astonishing  that  she 
should  have  divined  from  her  own  fragmentary  knowledge 
of  German  literature  its  innermost  spirit  and  world- 
message. 

We  have  seen  that  in  this  book  she  had  shown  the 
appalling  results  of  eighteenth  century  materialism  upon 
the  intellectual  and  social  life  in  France,  and  had  main- 
tained that  a  rejuvenation  of  character  and  culture  would 
come  about  only  if  enthusiasm,  imagination,  feeling, 
morality,  and  religion  were  to  become  living  forces  in  the 
French  national  character.  To  Germany  she  had  pointed 
as  a  future  model  for  France  in  this  respect.    In  the  preface 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  93 

to  Delphine  she  had  wished  for  a  man  of  genius,  like  Vol- 
taire, to  make  known  the  beauties  of  German  literature  to 
her  countrymen,  and  thus  to  do  away  with  those  national 
prejudices  that  held  the  French  literature  bound  in  the 
chains  of  "  sterility,  frigidity,  and  monotony."  As  no 
author  of  merit  had  taken  this  task  upon  himself,  and  her 
country's  need  was  pressing,  she  considered  it  now  her 
patriotic  duty  to  give  to  France  a  clear  insight  into  Ger- 
many and  its  new  culture.  To  her,  therefore,  belongs  the 
credit  not  only  of  having  been  the  discoverer  and  first 
great  interpreter  of  the  spirit  of  the  new  German  culture, 
but  also  of  having  been  the  bearer  of  its  message  to  the 
rest  of  the  civilized  world,  the  inaugurator  of  a  new  cul- 
tural life. 

In  the  following  discussion  I  shall  omit  as  far  as  pos- 
sible all  special  data  and  critical  comments  and  confine 
myself  to  the  broad  essential  characteristics  of  Ger- 
manic life  and  literature,  as  she  perceived  them  in  De 
I'Allemagne. 

In  the  introduction,  Observations  generates,  Mme.  de 
Stael,  as  in  her  previous  works,  states  that  France  does 
not  know  Germany.1  Inasmuch  as  the  Teutonic  character 
has  produced  beyond  the  barrier  of  the  Rhine  a  civiliza- 
tion, the  religion,  philosophy,  and  literature  of  which  are 
in  total  opposition  to  those  of  the  French  nation,2  she 
considers  it  advantageous  to  her  fatherland  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  true  home  of  thought,  and  not  to  erect 
around  French  literature  a  Chinese  wall  in  order  to  pre- 
vent  the   penetration   of   any   ideas   from   outside.3      Even 

1  I,  PP-  5.  6,  7.  Cf.  Corinnc,  bk.  vii,  chaps,  i  and  ii.  Cf.  pt.  ii, 
chap.  i. 

2  Cf.  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  i,  p.  206. 

*  I>  PP-  5_7-    Cf.  Corinne,  bk.  vii,  chaps,  i  and  ii.    Cf.  pt.  ii,  chap.  i. 


94  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

works  not  conforming  to  French  rules  of  good  taste  might 
contain  new  ideas  capable  of  enriching  a  literature  menaced 
with  monotony,  frigidity,  and  sterility  and  of  lending  aid 
in  the  rediscovery  of  the  source  of  true  literary  beauty. 
It  is  true  in  literature  as  in  philosophy  that  conceptions 
of  life  and  thought  should  not  be  regulated  by  a  certain 
standard,  such  as  that  of  reason,  but  should  be  subject  to 
that  study  and  examination  which  alone  gives  a  freedom 
of  judgment  without  which  it  is  impossible  to  acquire  new 
light  or  even  to  conserve  the  old.1  In  all  countries  that 
hospitality  which  welcomes  foreign  thoughts  and  senti- 
ments brings  good  fortune  to  the  host.2 

With  that  fine  intellectual  penetration  so  peculiar  to 
her,  Mme.  de  Stael  shows  that  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent characteristics  of  German  literature  is  liberty — the 
inner  freedom  of  the  mind.  Since  Germany  was  only  an 
aristocratic  federation  of  states,  with  no  common  center 
of  knowledge  and  public  spirit,  each  individual  had  the 
opportunity  of  self-development,  of  maintaining  his  own 
anarchy  of  literature  and  of  political  opinions.  At  the 
same  time  she  does  not  close  her  eyes  to  the  dangers  of 
exaggerated  individualism  to  the  political  development  of 
the  nation.  Thus  the  Germans,  she  says,  have  too  little 
national  prejudice.  Self-denial  and  unselfishness  are  good 
for  the  individual,  "  but  the  patriotism  of  nations  ought 
to  be  selfish."  3  The  pride  of  the  English,  French,  and 
Spanish  has  contributed  to  their  political  ascendency,  but 
the  Germans  have  not  felt  the  essential  Germanic  character 
as  their  basis.     They  have  let  it  be  divided  among  many 

1  I,  PP-  7-8. 

2  Pt.  ii,  chap,  xxxii. 

3  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  p.  17.  Cf.  pt.  ii,  chap.  xv.  Cf.  pt.  i,  chap,  xi, 
p.  18. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  95 

masters,  as  the  Saxon,  Prussian,  Bavarian,  and  Austrian. 
Hence,  while  each  state  is  independent,  and  each  science 
better  cultivated,  the  whole  nation  is  so  subdivided  that  it 
can  hardly  be  accorded  that  name. 

This  individualism  has  also  prevented  the  development 
of  the  love  of  national  liberty,  for  the  Germans  know  its 
value  neither  through  enjoyment  of  political  liberty  nor 
through  its  privation.  They  have  independence,  therefore 
they  are  indifferent  to  liberty.  The  feudal  codes  which 
still  govern  them,  though  unequal  in  principle,  are  equal 
in  practice;  and  justice,  slow  but  sure,  is  meted  out  in 
the  courts.  For  although  the  Germans  are  rather  inclined 
to  formulate  systems  for  abandoning  politics  to  arbitrary 
power,  yet  when  questions  of  jurisprudence  or  adminis- 
tration arise,  they  insist  on  strict  justice.1  Independence, 
however,  is  but  a  possession,  whereas  liberty  is  a  guaran- 
tee, and  the  Germans  should  not  neglect  that  great  national 
power  which  it  is  so  imperative  for  them  to  found  among 
the  states  of  Europe.2  Nevertheless  she  predicts  that  in- 
dependence of  spirit  and  mind  will  establish  independence 
of  state,  verifying  Schiller's  prophetic  words:  "  Es  ist  der 
Geist,  der  sich  den  Korper  baut,"  3  words  that  were  fulfilled 
by  the  establishment  of  the  German  Empire  in  1871.  In 
spite  of  the  long-continued  lack  of  national  liberty,  however, 
Germany  deserves  great  credit  for  the  early  perfection  of 
the  individual  Teutonic  character  in  the  midst  of  so  many 
difficulties,  and  for  daring  to  maintain  that  in  every  coun- 
try there  exist  a  national  taste  and  originality  having  their 
own  peculiar  rights  and  privileges.4 

1  Pt.  i,  chap.  xvi. 

2  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  pp.  31-32. 

3  Wallensteiris  Tod,  act  iii,  scene  iii,  line  1813. 

4  Pt.  ii,  chap.  vi. 


96  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

The  enlightened  Germans,  freed  from  all  sorts  of  public 
cares  and  business,  have  formed  a  republic  of  letters  that 
is  animated  and  independent,  a  republic  of  ideas,  where 
all  have  the  same  end  in  view,  and  their  imagination  multi- 
plies the  beauties  afforded  them  by  art  and  nature.  Here 
in  solitude,  like  miners  in  the  midst  of  buried  treasures, 
"  they  are  silently  unearthing  the  intellectual  riches  of  the 
human  race." 1  No  more  beautiful  interpretation  could 
have  been  given  to  the  "  tatenreiche  Stille,"  as  Schiller 
called  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  new  culture  of  Ger- 
many developed. 

What  there  is  called  study  is  really  most  admirable. 
Fifteen  hours  a  day  of  solitary  labor,  year  after  year,  is 
their  natural  mode  of  existence.  Even  the  ennui  of  so- 
ciety gives  animation  to  such  a  life,  for,  whereas  in 
society  monotony  fatigues  the  mind,  in  retirement  it  ren- 
ders the  soul  tranquil.2  In  France,  on  the  other  hand, 
because  of  the  attraction  of  society,  nobody  has  much 
time  for  labor  and  especially  for  attempting  many  forms 
of  human  activity.  A  French  student  confines  his  atten- 
tion wholly  to  his  chosen  pursuit,  and  never  aims  at  that 
diversity  of  knowledge  so  common  to  literary  and  scien- 
tific men  in  Germany.3  This  impartial  universality  has 
led  the  Germans  to  take  an  interest  in  the  literature  of 
foreign  countries,  and  nearly  all  men  above  the  common 
class  are  familiar  with  several  languages.  The  education 
of  the  German  university  really  begins  where  that  of  most 
European  nations  ends.  Not  only  are  the  professors  men 
of  astonishing  learning,  but  they  are  most  scrupulous  and 
conscientious   in   instruction.     They  have  in  everything  a 

1  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  xiii,  p.   126. 

2  Pt.  i,  chap,  xiv ;  pt.  ii,  chap,  xxviii. 

3  Pt.  iii,  chap.  x.     Cf .  chap.  ii. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  97 

conscience  that  is  incapable  of  deception  or  of  annihila- 
tion.1 

Searching  for  the  fountain  of  youth  that  might  rejuve- 
nate the  senile  civilization  of  France,  Mme.  de  Stael  dis- 
covers it  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  German  soul.  One  of 
the  truly  distinctive  traits  of  the  German  people,  she  says, 
is  their  enthusiasm.2  To  arrive  at  truth  one  needs  eleva- 
tion of  soul,  the  impulse  of  ardor  to  direct  the  attention, 
enthusiasm  in  a  word,  without  fanaticism.  "  Society  de- 
velops wit,  but  it  is  contemplation  that  forms  genius,"  3 
or  in  Goethe's  beautiful  words,  "  es  bildet  ein  Talent  sich 
in  der  Stille."  4 

Where  the  social  spirit  prevails,  as  it  does  in  France, 
self-love  is  uppermost.  Man  laughs  when  he  is  commanded 
to  laugh  and  is  ashamed  of  showing  his  true  feelings,  just 
because  his  egoism  fancies  itself  safer  in  irony  than  in 
emotion.  To  disclose  sentiments  which  may  be  subjected  to 
ridicule  would  require  a  strength  of  character  that  few 
Frenchmen  possess.5  Yet  it  is  only  in  the  child  that  levity 
has  a  charm ;  in  the  adult  it  denotes  deterioration,  for  when 
man  is  left  to  himself,  it  is  in  the  seriousness  of  his  soul 
alone  that  he  can  find  ideas,  thoughts,  and  sentiments.6 

Such  critical  pleasantry  is  the  very  arch-enemy  of  en- 
thusiasm. Of  all  forms  of  irony  and  of  ridicule,  that  which 
is  attached  to  ideas  and  sentiments  is  the  most  fatal.  Man 
rules  his  brother  man,  and  the  worst  evil  he  can  do  is  to 
ridicule  a  generous  emotion  and  the  action  it  would  in- 
spire.    Love,  talent,  and  genius  are  too  often  the  butt  of 

1  Pt.  i,  chap.  xix. 

3  III,  pt.  iv,  chap,  xi,  p.  394. 

8  III,  pt.  iv,  chap,  xi,  p.  396. 

*  Tasso,  act  i,  scene  ii. 

B  Pt.  iv,  chap.  xi. 

8  Pt.  i,  chap.  xix. 


98  Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

irony  and  the  sport  of  wit,  and  if  the  heart  be  not  de- 
fended by  enthusiasm,  it  becomes  the  prey  of  insolent 
gayety.  With  an  indignation  born  from  his  deep  ethical 
convictions,  Schiller  had  struck  at  this  same  trait  of  frivo- 
lous superficiality  in  the  French  character  in  his  famous 
lines  directed  against  Voltaire's  shameless  burlesque  on 
Joan  of  Arc,  La  Pucelle. 

"  Krieg  fiihrt  der  Witz    auf  ewig  mit  dem  Schonen, 
Er  glaubt  nicht  an  den  Engel  und  an  den  Gott ; 
Dem  Herzen  will  er  seine  Schatze  rauben, 
Den  Wahn  bekriegt  er  und  verletst  den  Glauben."  * 

Such,  indeed,  was  the  plight  of  France, — the  land  that 
Herder  as  early  as  1771  called  "  das  Trugverarmte  Gallia."  2 
From  the  overthrow  of  feudal  government  by  Cardinal 
Richelieu  until  the  time  of  the  Revolution  that  country 
had  been  destitute  of  enthusiasm.  "  The  spirit  of  fatuity," 
according  to  Lacretelle,  held  sway  and  the  empire  of  so- 
ciety in  the  great  world  caused  almost  all  the  virtues  of 
chivalry  to  disappear.3  Inasmuch  as  enthusiasm  is  neces- 
sary to  a  nation  to  prevent  its  dissolution  and  disintegra- 
tion, it  was  this  national  need  which  turned  men's  minds 
toward  the  love  of  liberty  which  resulted  in  the  French 
Revolution.  But  the  Revolution  had  failed,  and  military 
despotism  ruled.  France  had  become  a  country  of  iron, 
unbending  and  immovable,4  again  dominated  by  the  spirit 
of  fatuity,  alive  only  to  habitual  irony.5 

Because  of  their  peculiar  keenness  in  tracing  the  ridicu- 

1  Das  Madchen  von  Orleans.    Cf.  De  l'Allemagne,  pt.  iv,  chap.  iv. 

2  Auf  e'xne  Sammlung  Klopstockscher  Oden. 

3  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  iv,  p.  45- 

4  Lettres  inedites,  p.  180.    Letter  to  Meister,  dated  Coppet,  Aug.  2, 

1803. 
6  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  iii,  p.  37-    Cf.  chap.  iv. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  99 

lous,  the  French  have  been  the  dread  of  all  Europe,  par- 
ticularly of  the  Germans.  The  words  "  elegance "  and 
"  grace  "  had  a  magical  effect  in  exciting  selfish  egoism. 
Every  sentiment  and  action,  even  life  itself,  was  gauged 
by  this  criterion  of  fashion,  which  was  but  a  sort  of  treaty 
between  the  self-love  of  individuals  and  that  of  society,  a 
treaty  that  ostracized  everything  strong,  forcible,  and 
original.  Light  and  graceful  in  external  appearance,  in 
reality  despotic,  these  forms  of  vanity  have  gradually 
undermined  love,  enthusiasm,  religion,  everything  except 
that  selfishness  which  alone  is  impregnable  to  the  attacks 
of  irony.1  In  Germany  ridicule  would  never  become  such 
a  dangerous  factor,  for  the  German  has  too  much  regard 
for  the  truth  and  too  great  a  desire  to  know  the  secret  of 
things.  Even  when  he  adopts  reprehensible  opinions,  a 
secret  repentance  retards  his  pace  in  spite  of  himself.2  It 
is  here  that  Mme.  de  Stael  recognizes  the  great  educa- 
tional influence  of  German  authors  on  their  nation.  A 
German  writer,  she  says,  can  thus  form  his  public,  whereas 
in  France  the  author  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  public ;  he 
thinks  not  of  his  subject,  but  only  of  the  effect  he  is  pro- 
ducing.3 

"  Enthusiasm  concentrates  diverse  sentiments  in  the 
same  focus ;  it  is  the  incense  offered  by  earth  to  heaven, 
uniting  the  one  to  the  other."  4  There  could  be  no  more 
eloquent  defense  and  praise  of  the  elevating  force  of  ideal- 
ism as  revealed  in  German  literature.  With  deep  psy- 
chological insight  Mme.  de  Stael  recognizes  the  intimate 
connection   of    German    enthusiasm    with    imagination,   the 


1  Pt.  i,  chap.  ix. 

3  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  iv,  p.  224. 

8 1,  pt.  ii,  chap,  i,  p.  202. 

*  III,  pt.  iv,  chap,  xii,  pp.  415-16. 


ioo         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

dominant  quality  of  artistic  and  literary  Germany.1  The 
Germans  had  the  honor  of  being  the  first  nation  to  realize 
the  advantages  that  imagination  might  derive  from  learning, 
and  by  circumstantial  details  have  endowed  history  with 
life  and  color.2  To  imagination  is  united  contemplation,3 
and  together  they  form  a  very  rare  combination  of  char- 
acter, one  that  makes  the  German  nation  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  creation  of  lyric  poetry. 

The  basis  of  enthusiasm  and  imagination  is  necessarily 
the  spirit  (Tame),  the  word  with  which  Mme.  de  Stael 
translates  the  German  "  Gemiit."  This  inner  life,  this 
poetry  of  soul,  is  also  to  be  found  as  a  chief  characteristic  of 
the  German  nation.4  Their  poetry  does  not  consist  of  merely 
beautiful  verses ;  inspiration,  sensibility,  is  its  fountain- 
source.  "  In  order  to  conceive  the  true  grandeur  of  lyric 
poetry,  we  must  wander  in  thought  in  the  ethereal  regions, 
forget  the  tumult  of  earth  in  listening  to  celestial  harmony, 
and  consider  the  whole  universe. as  a  symbol  of  the  emo- 
tions of  the  soul."  5 

Whatever  is  serious  in  life,  dwells  in  this  "  ame."  Super- 
ficiality comes  from  without,  from  the  circumstances  of 
society,  from  a  false  philosophy  of  life,  which  considers 
the  worship  of  the  beautiful  as  fit  only  for  dupes  and  gives 
to  careless  levity  the  appearance  of  reflective  reasoning. 
In  all  things,  whatever  is  good  and  sublime  is  re- 
vealed to  us  only  by  the  divine  element  in  our  own 
hearts.6  '  The  soul  is  a  fire  which  inflames  all  our 
senses ;  it  is  in  this  fire   that  existence   consists ;   all   the 

1  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  p.  27. 

2  Pt.  ii,  chap.  xxix. 

3  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  x,  p.  279. 
*  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  p.  21. 

6  III,  pt.  ii,  chap,  x,  p.  279. 
6  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  xvi,  p.  218. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  ioi 

efforts  and  observations  of  philosophy  should  turn  toward 
this  me,  the  center  and  motive  force  of  our  ideas  and  senti- 
ments. No  doubt,  the  imperfection  of  language  compels 
us  to  make  use  of  erroneous  expressions;  we  are  obliged 
to  repeat  according  to  usage,  such  a  person  has  reason, 
or  imagination,  or  sensibility ;  but  if  we  wish  to  be  under- 
stood in  a  single  word,  it  is  sufficient  to  say,  he  has  soul, 
he  has  abundance  of  soul.  It  is  this  divine  spark  that 
makes  the  whole  man."  1 

This  new  ideal  of  man  revealed  in  German  literature 
finds  its  most  perfect  expression  in  the  conception  of  the 
genius,  whose  chief  characteristics  Mme.  de  Stael,  like 
Schiller  in  his  Naive  und  sentimentalische  Dichtung,  sees 
in  his  simplicity  and  naturalness.  The  German  genius 
is  born  of  this  inner  life.2  It  makes  the  bounds  of  exist- 
ence disappear  and  transforms  into  brilliant  images  the 
vague  hopes  of  man.  Like  love,  it  is  felt  as  a  strong  emo- 
tion which  penetrates  the  one  endowed  with  it.  Hence 
to  poets,  whose  only  guide  should  be  nature,  one  should 
speak  as  to  citizens  and  heroes :  "  Be  virtuous,  be  faith- 
ful, be  free :  respect  what  you  love,  seek  immortality  in  love 
and  divinity  in  nature ;  in  short,  sanctify  your  soul  as  a 
temple  and  the  angel  of  noble  thoughts  will  not  disdain  to 
enter  therein."  3 

Because  genius  is  a  manifestation  of  nature,  or,  in 
Schiller's  words,  of  the  Deity,  Mme.  de  Stael  finds  a  deep 
religious  element  in  the  writings  of  the  Germans  and  in 
their  new  culture.  She  discovers  what  Schiller,  in  the 
sketch  of  a  poem  intended  to  celebrate  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth   century,   expressed   thus :   "  Der   Deutsche   ver- 


*  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  ii,  p.  16. 
8 II,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xxxi,  p.  363. 
•Ill,  pt.  ii,  chap,  x,  p.  283. 


102         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

kehrt  mit  dem  Weltgeist."  For  just  as  simplicity  is  in 
harmony  with  genius,  so  also  religion  is  associated  with  it.1 
The  inexhaustible  source  of  all  talents  and  virtues  is  the 
sentiment  of  the  Infinite  which  manifests  itself  in  every 
generous  action  and  in  every  profound  thought.  As  the 
Germans  are  characterized  by  feeling,  genius,  and  inde- 
pendence of  thought,  so  also  their  religion  is  essentially 
one  of  heart  and  inner  conviction.2  Religion  is  like  life; 
we  feel  life  but  cannot  explain  it.  Yet  we  recognize  re- 
ligion as  a  sentiment  intimately  interwoven  with  all  that 
is  beautiful  in  nature  and  man,  inviting  in  us  the  hope  of 
a  sublime  existence  in  eternity. 

The  religion  of  a  country  generally  determines  its 
morality.3  Both  spring  from  the  heart ;  and  as  religion 
is  a  matter  of  inner  conviction,  so  also  is  morality.  It 
is  entirely  devoid  of  self-interest,  for  only  when  man  over- 
comes his  natural  spirit  of  rebellion  and  selfish  usurpation 
of  privileges  and  puts  himself  in  harmony  with  the  divine 
and  universal  order,  is  he  truly  religious.  Then  he  will 
have  no  aim  but  unselfish  duty.4  This  moral  attitude  is 
especially  characteristic  of  the  German  nation.5  Even  their 
gayety  and  mirth  are  a  certain  satisfaction  of  conscience.6 

Religion,  moreover,  is  but  a  desire  for  the  truth  and 
therefore  only  its  handmaid.  Truth  alone  can  make  man 
free  and  serves  as  a  bond  of  union  between  all  thinkers. 
To  quote  Mine,  de  Stael :  "  It  is  not  this  religion,  or  that 
opinion,  or  such  a  kind  of  study ;  it  is  the  veneration  of 
truth  that  unites  them.     Sometimes,  like  miners,  they  dig 

1  III,  pt.  iv,  chap,  i,  p.  274. 

2  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  p.  89. 

3  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  xiv,  p.  206. 

4  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  xii,  p.  176.  Cf.  pt.  ii,  chap.  xix. 

5  I,  pt.  i,  chap,  ii,  p.  20. 

6 1,  pt.  i,  chap,  xi,  p.  112. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  103 

into  the  foundations  of  the  earth  to  penetrate  the  mys- 
teries of  the  darksome  world  in  the  bosom  of  eternal  night ; 
sometimes  they  mount  to  the  summit  of  Chimborazo  to 
discover  at  the  loftiest  point  of  the  globe  some  hitherto 
unknown  phenomenon ;  sometimes  they  study  the  languages 
of  the  East  to  find  in  them  the  primitive  history  of  man ; 
sometimes  they  journey  to  Jerusalem  to  call  forth  from  the 
holy  ruins  a  spark  which  re-animates  religion  and  poetry ; 
in  a  word,  they  are  truly  the  people  of  God,  these  men  who 
do  not  yet  despair  of  the  human  race  and  wish  to  preserve 
to  man  the  empire  of  thought."  * 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  highest  ideals  concerning 
man  that  Mme.  de  Stael  recognizes  the  important  role 
which  philosophy  played  in  the  creation  of  the  new  German 
culture.  In  fact,  the  genius  of  philosophy  is  much  more 
advanced  in  Germany  than  anywhere  else ;  nothing  impedes 
it,  not  even  the  want  of  a  political  career;  for  only  the 
man  who  occupies  himself  with  the  problems  of  the  uni- 
verse is  really  accomplishing  anything.2  Mme.  de  Stael 
can  very  well  say :  "  That  which  constitutes  the  glory  and 
interest  of  this  country  is  its  literary  and  philosophical 
spirit."  3 

This  new  metaphysical  system,  so  different  from  the 
French  philosophy  then  prevalent,  has  from  the  time  of 
Leibniz  exerted  such  a  power  over  literature,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  understand  the  latter  without  a  knowledge 
of  the  former.  Let  us  give  a  short  resume  of  Mme.  de 
Stael's  view  of  the  situation. 

In  the  study  of  the  human  mind,  there  are  two  varieties 
of    philosophical    research — speculation     and    experiment. 

1  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  xxi,  pp.  261-62. 

2  Pt.  i,  chap,  xviii. 

8  III,  pt.  i,  chap,  xiii,  p.  125. 


104        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

The  influence  of  the  senses  and  that  of  the  spirit  share 
man's  being  between  them.  Among  the  people  of  the 
North  there  has  always  been  a  tendency  to  spiritual  specu- 
lation. Just  as  the  Greeks  believed  in  external  manifesta- 
tions of  divinity,  so  the  Teutons  had  faith  in  the  miracles 
of  the  soul.  In  the  South  paganism  deified  the  physical 
phenomena ;  in  the  North  man  believed  in  a  magic  that 
gave  him  power  over  the  material  world. 

Bacon  was  the  first  one  who  created  the  art  of  experi- 
ment and  announced  that  sensations  were  the  origin  of 
ideas.  His  doctrine,  adopted  in  a  most  literal  and  posi- 
tive sense  by  Hobbes,  who  boldly  maintained  "  that  the 
soul  was  as  much  subjected  to  necessity  as  society  to 
despotism,"  tended  to  annihilate  both  moral*  and  civil 
liberty.  Locke,  acting  upon  the  same  theory  of  sensations, 
declared  that  there  was  nothing  innate  in  the  mind,  but 
that  everything  there  was  but  the  result  of  sensation.  Man 
has  therefore  no  inner  consciousness  of  good  or  evil ;  only 
through  experience  does  he  acquire  such  knowledge.  Re- 
ligion thus  was  not  a  primitive  feeling  in  mankind,  but 
merely  an  accidental  acquisition. 

The  influence  of  Hobbes  in  England  was  slight ;  that 
of  Locke,  more  universal.  Yet  the  majority  of  English- 
men in  adopting  his  speculations  have,  like  Locke  himself, 
separated  results  from  principles  and  lived  moral  and  re- 
ligious lives.  Hence  upon  practical  ethics  this  abstract 
metaphysical  system  had  really  but  very  little  influence. 
It  remained  for  Hume  and  the  French  philosophers  of  the 
eighteenth  century  to  develop  this  materialistic  theory  most 
logically  in  all  its  fatal  consequences. 

The  inaugurator  of  this  selfish  sensationalistic  doctrine 
was  De  la  Mettrie.  To  him  man  was  but  an  ingenious  ma- 
chine, and  ideas  the  result  of  sensation.    Morals  were  there- 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  105 

fore  only  relative  factors.  Man's  chief  duty  was  to  seek 
happiness  for  himself  without  interfering  with  the  happiness 
of  others.  Conclillac  went  a  step  further,  and  declared  that 
ideas  were  hut  transformed  sensations,  and  the  ego  a  bun- 
dle of  such  sensations,  experienced  or  transformed  and 
held  in  recollection.  Hence,  if  man  were  formed  like  a 
horse,  he  would  have  the  sensations  of  a  horse.  From  this 
theory  Helvetius  deduced  the  following  moral  code.  The 
motive  of  man's  actions  is  self-love,  the  desire  for  pleasure 
and  the  avoidance  of  pain.  By  proper  education  and  legis- 
lation, however,  self-love  can  be  directed  to  harmonize  with 
the  public  welfare.  This  atheistic  materialism  reached  its 
full  significance  in  the  Systeme  de  la  Nature  of  Baron 
d'Holbach,  a  work  aptly  called  the  Bible  of  atheism.  To 
it  Denis  Diderot  contributed  many  declamatory  pages. 
Holbach  made  morals  a  division  of  physiology ;  the  soul 
meant  merely  the  brain  receiving  and  transmitting  motions. 
Hence  religion  and  government  have  error  as  their  basis 
and  serve  only  as  a  source  of  crime.  From  this  selfish 
philosophy  there  was  a  temporary  reaction  in  the  writings 
of  Rousseau.  He  restored  the  sentiment  of  religion,  in- 
augurated a  new  conception  of  morality,  interpreted  the 
beauty  of  external  nature,  emancipated  the  passions  from 
the  control  of  the  understanding,  and  preached  the  doctrine 
of  individual  right.  His  bold  theory  hastened  the  Revolu- 
tion with  all  its  horrors.  This  anarchy  in  turn  was  re- 
placed by  the  absolutism  of  one  man,  and  the  selfish 
atheistic  philosophy  found  new  justification.1 

In  direct  opposition  to  this  materialistic  philosophy  of 
the  French  stands,  Mme.  de  Stael  continues,  the  new 
idealistic  philosophy  of  the  Germans,  the  most  metaphysi- 
cal of  all  the  nations  of  the  North.     They  descend  from 

1  Pt.  iii,  chaps,  i,  ii,  iii. 


106         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

theory  to  experience,  while  the  materialists  ascend  from  ex- 
perience to  theory.  Their  philosophy,  like  the  doctrines 
of  Pythagoras  and  of  Plato,  considers  feeling  as  a  primary 
fact  of  mind,  and  religion  as  the  center  of  ideas. 

'  There  is  nothing  but  the  genius  of  sentiment  that  rises 
above  experimental  as  well  as  above  speculative  philosophy  ; 
there  is  no  other  genius  which  can  carry  conviction  beyond 
the  limits  of  human  reason."  1  Hence  philosophy  aims  to 
investigate  sentiment,  to  study  the  human  intellect,  and  to 
interpret  rationally  all  divine  truths. 

This  system  of  metaphysics,  which  substituted  the  ob- 
servation of  internal  feeling  for  external  sensation,  was 
inaugurated  by  Leibniz,  who  was  in  fact  the  natural  suc- 
cessor of  Descartes  and  of  Malebranche ;  for  had  the  French 
but  followed  their  own  metaphysicians  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  they  would  have  held  practically  the  same  philo- 
sophical opinions  as  the  Germans,  who  had  remained  un- 
tainted by  these  English  doctrines.2 

Leibniz's  system  of  monads  was  founded  solely  upon 
reason;  for  demonstration  he  substituted  consciousness. 
With  admirable  skill  he  confuted  Locke's  system  and 
showed  that  an  argument  based  upon  logical  reasoning  has 
not,  as  many  affirm,  greater  value  than  a  proof  from  senti- 
ment. He  declared  also  that  the  intellect  was  wholly  with- 
out the  domain  of  the  senses,  and  only  through  the  medium 
of  the  soul  could  be  felt  the  immortal  and  the  infinite.  To 
be  sure,  experimental  philosophy  had  offered  a  species  of 
evidence  by  rejecting  everything  that  lay  without  the  plane 

1  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  v,  p.  64. 

2  Pt.  iii,  chaps,   iii,  v,   vi.     Cf.  also   Mme.   de   Stael's   statement: 
'  The  French  authors  of  former  times  are  in  general  more  like  the 

Germans  than  the  writers  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  for  it  is  since 
that  time  that  French  literature  has  taken  a  classical  direction." 
II,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xxviii,  p.  332. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  107 

of  sensation.  But  does  this  exist  the  less,  even  though  it 
be  considered  as  naught  ?  The  imperfect  truth  of  specu- 
lation is  ever  much  nearer  the  real  essence  of  things  than 
that  apparent  lucidity  which  shuns  all  difficulties.  From 
Leibniz's  philosophy  is  derived  the  new  ethical  principle 
which  maintains  the  power  and  independence  of  moral 
liberty  against  the  annihilating  force  of  sensual  fatalism. 

The  qualities  of  imagination'  and  sensibility  that  were 
somewhat  lacking  in  the  system  of  Leibniz  were  supplied 
by  his  successor  Kant,  who  assigned  to  sentiment  the  first 
rank  in  human  nature,  made  conscience  the  innate  prin- 
ciple of  our  moral  existence,  and  the  feeling  of  right  and 
wrong  the  primitive  law  of  the  heart.  The  soul  of  man 
shows  itself  in  the  sciences,  in  ethics,  and  in  the  fine  arts, 
for  in  all  are  found  the  infinite  and  the  eternal.  From  this 
application  of  feeling  to  the  fine  arts  arises  the  conception 
of  the  ideal  or  the  beautiful.  This  is  also  an  inner  dis- 
position like  the  feeling  of  duty,  and  we  recognize  beauty 
only  as  the  outward  image  of  the  ideal  type  existing  in  our 
intellect.  Likewise,  the  sublime  in  man  consists  in  the 
struggle  of  moral  liberty  with  destiny,  or  with  his  own 
nature. 

The  adversaries  of  Kant  have  accused  him  of  lack  of 
originality,  of  merely  clothing  the  philosophical  systems  of 
the  ancients  in  new  language.  Mme.  de  Stael  admits  that 
his  metaphysical  theory  does  savor  in  some  instances  of 
Plato,  Descartes,  and  of  Malebranche,  but  he  has  infused 
into  his  system  such  a  multitude  of  new  and  brilliant  con- 
ceptions and  so  impressed  the  whole  with  the  stamp  of  his 
peculiar  and  wonderful  personality  that  his  doctrines  can 
justly  be  called  original.  It  was  Kant's  great  merit  to  have 
elevated  moral  dignity  by  founding  it  upon  immense  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  upon  a  singularly  abstract  and  logical 


io8         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

mode  of  reasoning.1  To  Leibniz  and  to  Kant,  therefore, 
belongs  the  honor  of  having  saved  Germany  from  that 
cold  doctrine  which  regarded  enthusiasm  as  an  error  and 
sentiment  as  a  prejudice.  There  was  need  of  a  philosophy 
of  faith,  of  enthusiasm ;  a  philosophy  that  confirmed  by 
reason  what  feeling  revealed  to  us.2 

In  Germany  this  philosophical  spirit  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  a  few  thinkers;  it  is  universal.3  Even  the 
public  takes  an  interest  in  such  discussions,  and  every  man 
of  talent  has  his  own  peculiar  system  of  philosophy.  The 
public  taste  is  moreover  so  highly  developed  that  German 
writers  of  the  second  and  third  rank  would,  according  to 
Mme.  de  Stael,  be  granted  first  place  in  other  countries. 
In  respect  to  form  of  discussion,  the  Germans  are  very 
indulgent  and  pardon  defects,  but  in  regard  to  thought, 
they  are  most  merciless  critics.  To  them  ignorance  and 
indifference  in  literature  and  in  the  fine  arts  are  a  great 
disgrace.  Through  this  conception  of  culture  many  im- 
portant sentiments  and  principles  4  have  been  preserved  to 
society  by  men  who  devote  the  most  abstract  philosophy  to 
the  defense  of  exalted  thoughts  and  who  hide  a  lively 
imagination  under  austere  logic.5 

This  new  German  philosophy  promotes  universality  of 
knowledge  and  this  in  turn  leads  to  the  discovery  of  the 
laws  of  nature.  The  Germans  predict  from  reflection  what 
observation  is  bound  to  confirm.6  In  their  theorizing  they 
believe  that  the  universe  is  modeled  after  the  human  soul, 
and  that  the  analogy  of  each  part  to  the  whole  is  so  close 

1  Pt.  iii,  chap.  vi. 

2  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  vi,  p.  91. 
8  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  vi,  p.  95. 
*  Pt.  iii,  chap.  xxi. 

5  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  vii,  p.  100. 

6  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  x,  p.  147. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  109 

that  the  same  idea  is  reflected  from  the  whole  in  every 
part,  and  from  each  part  in  the  whole.1  Consequently,  in 
order  to  study  man  in  all  his  relations,  it  is  necessary  to 
know  the  laws  and  forces  of  the  universe.  Between  the 
physical  and  the  moral  world  there  exists  a  great  analogy 
and  yet  a  diversity,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  be  considered 
a  learned  man  of  the  first  rank  without  knowing  speculative 
philosophy,  nor  a  speculative  philosopher  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  positive  sciences.2  In  thus  uniting  experi- 
mental science  with  speculative  philosophy  the  Germans 
tend  toward  the  veritable  perfection  of  the  human  spirit.3 
They  are  willing  to  concede  that  what  we  call  errors  and 
superstitions  may  depend  perhaps  upon  laws  of  the  uni- 
verse that  are  still  unknown  to  man.  The  relations  between 
the  planets  and  the  vegetable  world  may  be  subordinate  to 
occult  powers  of  which  we  have  no  conception.  It  is  true 
that  most  of  the  great  discoveries  that  have  been  made 
were  at  first  considered  absurd ;  regardless  therefore  of 
ridicule  and  of  apparent  obstacles,  man  should  march  on 
toward  the  truth  and  avail  himself  of  every  means  to  throw 
light  on  the  nocturnal  side  of  nature.  That  very  subtility 
which  enables  one  to  unravel  the  minutest  threads  of 
thought  is  the  best  factor  for  developing  genius ;  it  inspires 
man  with  the  necessity  of  climbing  to  heights  of  thought 
unknown  before. 

The  new  German  philosophy  not  only  develops  univer- 
sality of  knowledge ;  it  develops  the  moral  faculties  as  well. 
Thought  resides  in  the  inner  man,  for  on  the  surface  there 

1  "  Every  portion  of  the  universe  appears  to  be  a  mirror  in  which 
all  creation  is  represented;  and  we  hardly  know  which  inspires 
more  admiration,  thought  always  the  same,  or  form  always 
diverse."     Ill,  pt.  iii,  chap,  x,  p.   150. 

2  Pt.  iii,  chap.  v. 

3  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  x,  p.  158. 


no         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

is  nothing  but  folly  and  stupidity.  Even  if  the  mystery  of 
the  universe  is  beyond  the  reach  of  humanity,  still  the 
study  of  that  mystery  expands  the  human  intellect  and 
enables  man  to  comprehend  truths  that  would  otherwise 
have  remained  unknown  to  him.1  Moreover,  when  men 
are  forced  to  examine  their  own  souls  and  to  meditate 
thereon,  their  reflections  have  an  infallible  power  and  sin- 
cerity of  judgment.  This  examination  of  self  is  by  far 
the  most  admirable  characteristic  in  German  philosophy.2 
To  German  philosophers  belongs  the  credit  of  having  been 
the  first  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  place  a  strong  spirit 
by  the  side  of  faith,  genius  by  the  side  of  morals,  and  char- 
acter by  the  side  of  duty.3 

Of  all  nations,  the  Germans,  accustomed  as  they  are  to 
keen  and  solitary  meditation,  probe  so  deeply  into  truth 
that  anyone  who  despises  their  writings  without  due  con- 
sideration, must  be  ignorant  or  conceited.  For  the  study 
of  philosophy  is  just  as  important  as  that  of  art,  science, 
or  literature ;  the  soul  craves  every  form  of  beauty,  dignity, 
and  perfection.4  Philosophy  consists  moreover  in  finding 
a  reasonable  interpretation  of  divine  truth,  of  that  noblest 
inspiration  of  the  inner  man,  the  feeling  of  the  infinite.5 
This  religious  feeling  or  exaltation,  as  we  have  seen  before, 
is  rooted  in  the  love  of  ideal  beauty,  of  celestial  divinity. 
Hence  it  follows  that  "  the  idealistic  type  of  philosophy 
among  the  Germans  as  among  the  Greeks  has  for  its  origin 
the  cult  of  the  beautiful  that  our  soul  (Gemut)  alone  con- 
ceives and  recognizes."  G     Furthermore,  this  idealistic  doc- 


1  Pt.  iii,  chap.  v. 
a  Til,  pt.  iii,  chap,  vii,  p.  117. 
8  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  xx,  p.  253. 
4  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  vii,  p.  123. 
6  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  iii,  p.  31. 
8  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  vi,  p.  248. 


Essential  Ideas  of  German  Culture  hi 

trine  is  the  only  one  that  can  now  offer  humanity  new 
and  ingenious  conceptions  or  afford  man  the  hope  of  ad- 
vancement. The  notions  of  the  materialists,  which  have 
in  past  time  to  a  certain  extent  aided  the  cause  of  the 
positive  sciences,  no  longer  produce  anything  original  or 
interesting;  they  restore  nothing  of  that  youth  to  the 
human  race  which  philosophy  is  giving  to  religion,  which 
reason  is  giving  to  the  life  of  the  emotions.1 

In  direct  contradiction  to  this  abstract  metaphysical 
philosophy  seems  the  taste  that  the  Germans  show  for  the 
naive ;  although  it  is  in  reality  due  to  it.  There  is  phi- 
losophy in  everything,  even  in  the  imagination.  Inasmuch 
as  a  chief  characteristic  of  the  simplicity  of  genius  is  the 
expression  of  immediate  thought  and  feeling  without  re- 
flecting on  the  result,  a  distinguishing  trait  of  popular 
poetry  (Volkspoesie)  as  Herder  had  pointed  out  in  1775,2 
Mme.  de  Stael  maintains  that  in  all  arts  the  judgment  of 
the  public  ought  to  be  consulted,  for  the  popular  impres- 
sion is  more  philosophical  than  philosophy  itself.3  Hence 
the  new  philosophy  of  the  Germans,  the  "  dawn  of  a  new 
life,"  4  is  in  harmony  with  their  literary  theory  of  naivete 
in  feeling  and  expression.  But,  as  she  says  of  Goethe,  it 
is  not  the  naivete  of  innocence  but  of  power,5  the  naivete 
born  of  profound  erudition,  deep  meditation,  and  strong 
feeling,  a  force  that  was  to  bring  to  the  despairing  human 
race  a  new  term  of  life.6 

1  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  vi,  p.  95. 

2  Auscug   aus   einem   Briefzvechsel   ilber    Ossian   und   die   Lieder 
alter  Volker. 

8  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  ix,  p.  140. 
4  III,  pt.  iii,  chap,  viii,  p.  128. 
6  I,  pt.  ii,  chap,  xiii,  p.  328. 

6  "  It  may  be  that  the  best  time   for  poetry  was  during  the  age 
of  ignorance  and  that  the  youth  of  the  human  race  is  gone  forever; 


ii2         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

This  rejuvenation  of  humanity  through  the  poetic  and 
scientific  efforts  of  the  Germans, — this  is  the  final  message 
which  German  culture  had  revealed  to  Mme.  de  Stael,  a 
message  which  she  in  turn  proclaimed  to  the  world  at  large. 

but  in  the  writings  of  the  Germans  we  seem  to  feel  a  new  youth 
arising  from  the  noble  choice  which  may  be  made  by  those  to  whom 
everything  is  known.  The  age  of  light  has  its  innocence  as  well 
as  the  golden  age,  and  if  man  during  his  infancy  believes  only  in 
his  soul,  he  returns  when  he  has  learned  everything  to  confide  in 
nothing  else."     Ill,  pt.  iii,  chap,  ix,  p.  142. 


PART  II 

EFFECT  OF  THE  MESSAGE  OF  DE  L'ALLEMAGNE 
UPON  THE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  I 

GERMANY  AND  FRANCE 

The  foregoing  chapter  in  Part  I  has  shown  the  power- 
ful forces  in  De  I'Allemagne  that  made  especial  impression 
upon  the  reading  public.  In  the  first  place,  the  book  in- 
troduced Germany  to  itself.  A  critic  in  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  in  his  discussion  of  the  Lettres  sur  I'Angleterre 
by  Mme.  de  Stael's  oldest  son.  Baron  Auguste  de  Stael- 
Holstein,  writes :  "  The  difficulty  of  giving  an  accurate  de- 
scription of  a  foreign  country  is  as  obvious  at  the  least  as 
its  usefulness  is  great,  not  merely  to  those  ignorant  of  the 
subject,  but  to  the  inhabitants  themselves,  who  must  profit 
exceedingly  by  observing  the  light  in  which  strangers  re- 
gard their  character  and  institutions."  1  This  quotation  ap- 
plies most  aptly  to  De  I'Allemagne.  Jean  Paul  Richter, 
speaking  of  the  influence  of  that  work  in  France,  adds : 
"  And  yet  she  can  perform  a  far  better  service  for  still 
another  nation,  for  the  German  people  itself.  For  this 
service  not  only  the  art-critic  will  thank  her,  but  the  patriot 
as  well.  Not  the  outer  but  the  inner  man  has  need  of  a 
mirror.  Only  in  the  eye  of  a  foreign  observer  a  com- 
plete view  of  oneself  can  be  obtained.  .  .  .  Through  for- 
eign peculiarity  one's  own  distinctive  character  is  dis- 
cerned and  ennobled."  2  Goethe  in  his  letter  to  Mme.  de 
Stael   from  Carlsbad  May  26,   1808,3  refers  to  the  same 

1  XLIII,  pp.  225-42,  Nov.,  1825. 

*  Werke,  XIX,  p.  180. 

8  Brief  e,  XX,  pp.  67-68,  No.  5542. 

115 


n6         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

advantages,  although  after  the  appearance  of  the  book 
during  the  Wars  of  Liberation,  he  writes  to  Frau  Sara  von 
Grotthus :  "  Among  the  noteworthy  events  of  this  age  may 
be  cited  the  wonderful  fate  of  this  book.  The  French 
police,  intelligent  enough  to  see  that  such  a  work  would 
increase  the  confidence  of  Germany  in  itself,  wisely  had 
it  destroyed ;  but  while  a  few  rescued  copies  slumber,  the 
Germans  are  waking  up  and  saving  themselves  without 
any  such  intellectual  stimulus.  At  the  present  moment  the 
book  produces  a  strange  impression.  If  it  had  appeared 
earlier,  to  it  would  have  been  attributed  an  influence  upon 
the  great  events  just  past:  now  it  lies  here  as  a  prophecy 
and  challenge  to  destiny,  that  has  been  discovered  too  late ; 
yes,  it  even  reads  as  if  it  had  been  written  many  years 
ago.  The  Germans  will  hardly  recognize  themselves  in  it, 
but  they  will  find  therein  the  safest  measure  of  the  im- 
mense progress  which  they  have  made."  x 

We  have  seen  that  in  1810,  Napoleon,  through  General 
Savary,  had  the  book  interdicted,  because  it  "  was  not 
French."  Mme.  de  Stael,  in  the  introduction  to  the  edition 
of  1813,  from  which  I  quote,  thus  explains  her  sympathetic 
attitude  towards  Germany :  "  From  its  geographical  position 
Germany  may  perhaps  be  considered  the  heart  of  Europe, 
and  the  great  association  of  the  continent  can  never 
recover  its  independence  but  by  the  independence  of  this 
country. 

"  The  submission  of  one  people  to  another  is  contrary 
to  nature.  Who  would  now  believe  in  the  possibility  of 
subduing  Spain,  Russia,  England,  France?  Why  should 
it  not  be  the  same  with  Germany?  If  the  Germans  could 
be  subjugated,  their  misfortune  would  rend  the  heart ;  but 
as  Mile,  de  Mancini  said  to  Louis  XIV. :  '  You  are  a  king, 
1  Brief e,  XXIV,  pp.  160-61,  No.  6753,  Feb.  17,  1814. 


Germany  and  France  117 

sire,  and  weep,'  so  also  we  would  be  tempted  to  say  to 
them:  'You  are  a  nation  and  you  weep!' 

Posterity,  indeed,  has  at  all  times  had  an  opinion  strongly 
dissenting  from  that  of  the  arrogant  General  Savary.  A 
host  of  critics  in  France  herself  bears  sincere  witness  to 
the  lasting  qualities  of  De  I ' Allemagne  and  the  profound 
influence  which  the  book  exerted. 

Thus  Doumic  writes:  "  Mine,  de  Stael  is  a  power;  and 
her  power  is  that  of  opinion."  1  It  is  not  too  much  to 
believe  that  in  her  interviews  with  royalty  and  with  poli- 
ticians, in  her  many  conversations  with  literary  men,  in 
her  wide  correspondence,  in  her  literary  works  which 
breathe  forth  the  dignity  and  independence  of  man  and  the 
power  of  action,  in  her  hospitable  salon,  she  should  have 
made  the  lovers  of  liberty  and  the  friends  of  progress 
realize  what  the  conquest  of  Germany  would  mean  to  both 
nations." 

To  these  lines  the  words  of  Vapereau  may  fitly  be  joined  : 2 
'  In  fact,  the  peculiar  and  original  merit  of  De  V Allemagne 
was  to  make  France  comprehend  for  the  first  time  a  litera- 
ture, an  art,  a  philosophy,  a  national  character,  which  had 
been  rendered  inaccessible  to  her,  not,  as  commonly  said, 
by  the  barrier  of  the  Rhine,  but  by  the  profound  difference 
in  language,  history,  and  genius  of  the  two  peoples.  The 
Germany  that  she  presents  to  us  is  that  of  Weimar,  the 
German  Athens,  it  is  the  Germany  of  Goethe,  Schiller, 
Wieland,  Tieck,  and  the  authors  whom  Mme.  de  Stael  had 
personally  known ;  it  is  the  Germany  of  all  those  writers, 
who,  after  Klopstock,  worked  to  free  themselves  from 
foreign  semblance  and  imitation." 

Vinet  says  that  "  De  V Allemagne  was  an  enterprise  of 

1  Hommes  et  Idces  de  dix-neuvieme  Steele,  Paris,  1903,  p.  39. 

2  Dictionnaire  universel  des  Litteratures,  Paris,  1878,  p.  1912. 


n8         Madame  de  Stakes  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

reaction  against  a  triple  despotism ;  of  a  man  in  politics, 
a  sect  in  philosophy,  and  a  tradition  in  literature."  x 

The  political  and  literary  aspects  of  this  statement  are 
really  subordinate  to  the  metaphysical  side  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  for,  according  to  Mme.  de  Stael,  the  philosophical 
system  that  is  adopted  in  any  country  exerts  a  tremendous 
influence  over  the  direction  of  man's  mind,  and  is  the 
model,  conscious  or  unconscious,  to  which  all  persons  con- 
form in  belief  and  actions.  For  nearly  a  hundred  years 
Europe  had  seen  the  growth  of  a  scoffing  skepticism  founded 
on  the  philosophy  of  sensation,  a  philosophy,  the  first 
principle  of  which  had  been,  not  to  believe  a  thing  that 
could  not  be  demonstrated  by  actual  experience.2 

Opposed  to  this  materialistic  philosophy  of  the  French 
stood  the  idealistic  theories  of  Kant  and  Fichte.  Kant 
reduced  reason  to  a  mere  regulative  function  of  the  mind, 
assumed  the  existence  of  God,  immortality,  and  the  free- 
dom of  the  will,  insisted  upon  duty  for  duty's  sake,  and 
preached  the  eternal  moral  law,  inherent  in  the  soul  of 
man.  And  although  Fichte's  philosophy  was  centered 
around  the  individual,  yet  his  idealism  was  active  and  pro- 
ductive, and  insisted  that  man  must  carve  out  his  own 
destiny,  and  prove  that  "  im  Anfang  war  die  Tat." 

Victor  Hugo  once  expressed  this  complementary  connec- 
tion between  the  two  countries,  "  France  and  Germany  are 
essentially  Europe.  Germany  is  the  heart ;  France,  the 
head.     Germany  feels,  France  thinks."  3 

With  this  thought  of  balancing  the  two  nations  by  mutual 
aid  Mme.  de  Stael  wrote  her  book,  to  show,  in  short,  Ger- 

1  Cf.  Abel  Stevens :  Madame  de  Stael,  New  York,  1880,  II, 
p.  218. 

Cf.  Meth.  Quar.  Review,  Oct.,  1878,  XXXVIII,  p.  583. 

2  Cf.  De  l'Allemagne,  pt.  iii,  chaps,  iv  and  vi. 
8  Le  Rhin. 


Germany  and  France  119 

many  to  her  countrymen,  and  '  la  belle  France  "  to  the 
Germans,  through  a  comparative  study  of  the  character 
and  customs  of  the  people,  their  philosophy,  religion,  and 
ideals. 

In  the  mutual  exchange  of  ideas  she  felt  that  the  French 
would  gain  more  from  an  understanding  of  German  genius 
than  the  Germans  would  in  subjecting  themselves  to  the 
good  taste  of  the  French,  because  taste  is  inferior  to 
genius.1  Besides,  whenever  a  little  foreign  touch  has  been 
added  to  orthodox  French  models,  the  French  themselves 
have  greeted  the  product  with  delight.  J.  J.  Rousseau, 
Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre,  Chateaubriand,  unknown  to  them- 
selves, were  in  some  of  their  works  akin  to  the  German 
school,  inasmuch  as  they  drew  their  inspiration  from  the 
same  innermost  recesses  of  the  soul.  Thus,  in  Sorel's 
language,  "  De  V Allemagne  is  one  of  the  most  patriotic 
actions  ever  accomplished  by  a  French  writer.  "  2 

Pellissier  says  that  Mme.  de  Stael,  by  giving  renewed 
force  to  religious  sentiment  and  to  the  life  of  the  soul, 
by  freeing  art  from  narrow  rules  and  sterile  formulas,  by 
reviving  the  spirit  of  literary  criticism,  deserves  the  name 
of  being  "a  great  initiator."  "  She  has  inaugurated  in 
most  diverse  directions  the  moral  and  religious  movement 
of  our  epoch.  She  has  sown  the  age  with  pregnant  ideas ; 
she  has  given  a  new  soul  to  our  poetry."  3 

1  De  l' Allemagne,  pt.  ii,  chap,  i,  p.  206. 

2  Mme.  de  Stael,  chap,  vii,  p.  181.  Cf.  For.  Quar.  R.,  XIV,  pp. 
1-30,  1834:  "We  regard  the  critical  writings  of  Mme.  de  Stael  as 
the  greatest  boon  she  gave  to  France ;  and  greatest  among  these, 
that  for  which  she  suffered  the  bitterest  persecution,  her  celebrated 
work  on  Germany."  "  Mme.  de  Stael  is  the  true  leader  of  those 
who  wanted  a  national  literature." 

3Le  Mouvement  Htterahe  de  XIXe  Siecle,  Paris,  1903,  p.  54.  Cf. 
Ed.  R.,  LVII,  pp.  107-14,  Apr.,  1833,  Art.:  Hayward's  Translation 
of  Faust.    Cf.  Richter:  Werke,  X,  p.  167. 


120        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  treat  here  in  detail  the  influence 
on  French  thought  of  all  the  German  writers  whom  Mme. 
de  Stael  had  introduced  to  the  French  public  in  her  De 
l'Allemagne.  That  has  already  been  done  very  fully  by 
such  able  scholars  as  Siipfle,  Baldensperger,  Texte,  Meiss- 
ner,  and  Rossel.1  I  shall  restrict  my  discussion  to  the  in- 
fluence on  France  of  the  greatest  of  all  German  writers, 
the  world-poet  Goethe. 

In  his  Confession  d'un  Enfant  du  Siecle  (1836)  Alfred 
de  Musset  writes  thus  of  Goethe's  conception  in  France: 
"At  that  time  (during  the  Restoration)  two  poets,  the 
most  brilliant  geniuses  of  the  century  following  Napoleon, 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  task  of  uniting  all  the  scattered 
trials  and  sorrows  in  the  universe.  Goethe,  the  patriarch 
of  a  new  literature,  after  depicting  in  IVerther  that  pas- 
sion which  leads  to  suicide,  had  brought  forward  in  his 
Faust  the  most  gloomy  human  figure  that  ever  repre- 
sented evil  and  misfortune.  His  writings  were  then  be- 
ginning to  come  from  Germany  into  France.  From  his 
study  with  its  paintings  and  statuary  he  saw,  silent  and  yet 
with  a  fatherly  smile,  his  dismal  work  coming  to  us  from 
over  the  Rhine.  .  .  .  (The  other  poet  was  Byron)  .  .  . 
But  tell  me,  noble  Goethe,  is  there  no  longer  a  comforting 
voice  in  the  reverent  murmur  of  your  ancient  German 
forests?    You,  for  whom  poetry  was  the  sister  of  science, 

1  Theodor  Siipfle :  Geschichte  des  deufschen  Kultureinflusses  auf 
Frankreich,  2  vols.,  Gotha,  1886-90.  Ferdinand  Baldensperger: 
Goethe  en  France,  Paris,  1904.  Joseph  Texte:  Etudes  de  Litterature 
europeenne,  Paris,  1898;  Rousseau  et  les  Origines  du  Cosmo politisme 
litteraire,  Paris,  1895 ;  Les  Origines  de  ['Influence  allemande  dans  la 
Litterature  francaise  du  XIXe  Siecle  in  Revue  d'Histoire  litteraire, 
Jan.  15,  1898,  V,  pp.  1-53.  Fritz  Meissner:  Der  Einfluss  dcutschen 
Geistes  auf  die  franzosische  Literatur  des  neunsehnten  Jahr- 
hunderts,  Leipzig,  1893.  Virgile  Rossel:  Histoire  des  Relations 
litteraires  entre  la  France  et  l'Allemagne,  Paris,  1897. 


Germany  and  France  121 

could  not  these  two  nurses  find  a  healing  herb  for  the  heart 
of  their  favorite?  You  who  were  a  pantheist,  a  poet  of 
ancient  Hellas,  a  friend  of  sacred  forms,  could  you  not 
pour  into  these  beautiful  vessels  which  you  knew  so  well 
how  to  create,  a  little  honey,  you,  who  needed  but  to  smile, 
and  the  bees  would  come  to  your  lips?"1 

Fourteen  years  before  this  the  publisher  Ladvocat  be- 
gan the  printing  of  a  collection  of  foreign  masterpieces,2 
in  which  an  important  place  was  assigned  to  the  German 
drama,  while  Shakespeare  and  Alfieri  were  omitted. 
Among  the  German  dramas  was  Faust,  translated  by 
Sainte-Aulaire.  In  a  critique  of  this  work  the  Moniteur 
universel 3  declared  that  the  names  of  Schiller  and  Goethe 
have  resounded  in  France.  "  Gotz,  Egmont,  Clavigo,  Iphi- 
genie,  Tasso,  and  Faust  have  been  devoured  by  a  crowd  of 
readers  eager  to  know  and  to  judge  these  original  pro- 
ductions of  foreign  Muses."  And  a  short  time  afterward 
the  Journal  des  Dcbats 4  asserted  that  "  of  all  foreign 
writers,  Goethe  and  Moratfn  were  those  who  for  the  past 
two  or  three  months  had  found  the  most  imitators  in 
comedy " ;  for  Comedy,  rather  than  Tragedy,  sought  in 
Goethe's  dramas  situations  capable  of  adaptation  to  French 
form. 

In  1825  Albert  Stapfer  edited  a  translation  of  Goethe's 
dramatic   works.5      According  to   the   preface,    he   himself 

1  Not  having  access  to  the  French  original,  I  translated  from  a 
German  version. 

2  Chcfs-d'ccuvre  des  Theatres  etrangcrs  traduits  en  francais,  par 
Aignan,  Andrieux,  Chas.  de  Remusat,  de  Guizard,  G.  dz  Baer, 
Auguste  de  Stael,  et  Sainte-Aulaire. 

8  Nov.  24,  1823. 
4  Mar.   14,  1824. 

"  (Euvres  dramatiques  de  Goethe,  traduites  de  l'Allemand,  pre- 
cedees  d'une  notice  biographique  et  litteraire  sur  Goethe.    4  vols. 


122         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

translated  Gbtz,  Egmont,  and  Faust;  while  his  collabo- 
rators, Cavagnac  and  Marguere,  did  the  others.  For  this 
task  Stapfer  was  most  warmly  commended  by  Goethe  and 
by  the  Globe,  the  official  organ  of  the  French  Romantic 
School.1 

Before  this  time,  however,  single  German  plays  had 
been  translated  into  French.  Among  the  first  was  Gbtz 
von  Berlichingen}  To  this  work  belongs  the  credit  of 
calling  into  being  many  historical  plays.  Goethe  appre- 
ciated its  influence,  as  is  indicated  by  his  words  to  Ecker- 
mann.3  '  The  germ  of  the  historical  pieces,  which  are  now 
something  new  in  France,  was  found  a  half-century  ago  in 
my  Gbtz."  Especially  in  the  careful  representation  of  char- 
acteristic customs,  in  the  extensive  use  of  local  color,  so 
apparent  in  the  dramas  of  Dumas  and  Hugo,  Gbtz  was 
the  initiator.  As  the  literary  historian,  A.  Mezieres,  says : 
"  It  is  from  Gbtz  von  Berlichingen  and  from  all  this  school, 
not  from  Shakespeare,  let  us  not  forget,  that  the  historical 
drama  comes  to  us,  such  as  the  Romanticists  have  rep- 
resented on  the  stage  ...  in  France,  with  a  use  of  local 
color  wholly  unknown  to  Shakespeare."  In  fact,  through 
the  medium  of  Dumas  and  Hugo,  according  to  Supfle, 
Gbtz  exerted  a  more  potent  influence  upon  the  French 
theater  than  all  of  Goethe's  other  dramas,  not  excepting 
Faust.* 

Although  in  1826  the  Globe  had  recognized  in  Egmont  a 
modern  tragedy,  yet  as  a  drama  this  work  had  no  imita- 
tions. In  addition  to  the  two  general  editions  mentioned 
above,  however,   the  piece  was  later  used   as   the  libretto 

1  See  Kunst  und  Altertum,  1826,  for  Goethe's  review  of  this 
translation,  with  quotation  of  J.  J.  Ampere's  article  in  the  Globe. 

2  Friedel  et  de  Bonneville:  Nouveau  Theatre  allemand,  17S2,  t.  9. 
8  Mar.  6,  1830. 

*  Cf.  bk.  ii,  pt.  i,  p.  126. 


Germany  and  France  123 

of  an  opera,1  in  which  its  political  and  patriotic  significance 
was  almost  lost.  Nor  must  we  ignore  the  fact  that  two  of 
the  greatest  French  dramatists  have  used  motives  found 
in  Egmont.  Alexandre  Dumas  in  his  Christine  borrows 
Alba's  monologue  for  his  Corsican  Sentinelli.  In  Hugo's 
Hernani  Dona  Sol's  exclamation :  "  Que  sur  ce  velours 
noir  ce  collier  d'or  fait  bien!"2  recalls  a  similar  expres- 
sion by  Klarchen  to  Egmont :  "  Der  Sammet  ist  gar  zu 
herrlich  und  die  Passamentarbeit !  und  das  Gestickte !  "  3 
Traces  of  this  drama  and  of  Gotz  may  also  be  seen  in  De 
Musset's  Lorenzaccio. 

Goethe's  Tasso,  known'  in  the  translation,  merits  the 
distinction  of  having  directly  inspired  a  historical  drama 
by  Albert  Duval,  which  was  performed  at  the  Theatre 
Franchise,  December  1826.4  Likewise,  Alfred  de  Vigny's 
drama  Chatterton  (1835)  recalls  many  similarities  to  this 
tragedy. 

Iphigenie  inaugurated  a  new  species  of  drama  founded 
upon  the  inner  life,  which  was  not  at  first  understood  by 
the  French  people.  Despite  the  warm  admiration  of  Mme. 
de  Stael  and  of  the  Globe,  it  did  not  find  a  place  on  the 
French  stage  until  1902.  This  neglect  was  probably  due 
to  a  deficiency  in  external  action.  The  Parnassians,  how- 
ever, who  were  devotees  of  calm  and  classic  form,  lauded 
its  merits;  and  after  1870,  when  the  real  import  of  its 
message   began   to  be   understood,    it  grew    in   popularity 

1  Egmont:  Drame  lyrique  en  quatre  actes,  paroles  de  MM.  Albert 
Wolff  et  Albert  Millaud,  musique  de  M.  Gaston  Salvayre,  Dec.  6, 
1886. 

2  "  How  beautiful  this  gold  collar  looks  on  the  black  velvet!" 
Act  v,  scene  iii. 

8  "  The  velvet  is  so  very  fine  and  the  passamenterie !  and  the  em- 
broidery!"    Act  iii,  sc.  iii. 

4  See  Kunst  und  Altcrtum,  1827. 


124         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

among  such  thinkers  as  Taine,  who  called  it  the  "  most 
beautiful  masterpiece  of  modern  art."  1 

For  the  present  I  shall  omit  Goethe's  drama  Faust  and 
consider  briefly  the  influence  of  his  lyric  and  epic  poetry 
and  of  his  novels  upon  French  literature. 

In  De  l'Allemagne  Mme.  de  Stael  had  directed  the  at- 
tention of  her  readers  to  Goethe's  natural  simplicity  and 
naivete  as  a  lyric  poet  and  ballad  writer.  Moreover,  as 
early  as  1800,  she  had  translated  into  French  verse  Der 
Fischer  and  Der  Gott  und  die  Bajadere.  Several  years 
later  (181 8)  Latouche  translated  Erlkbnig  and  Emile 
Deschamps  followed  with  his  versions  of  Der  Kdnig  von 
Thule  and  Die  Braut  von  Korinth  (1828).  The  lack  of 
translations  was  due  to  that  very  naivete  and  simplicity 
which  Mme.  de  Stael  had  commended.  The  great  charm 
of  melodious  verse,  closely  interwoven  with  depth  of  feel- 
ing and  breathing  the  mysteries  of  nature,  is  lost  in  trans- 
lation, and  the  French  verse  becomes  weak,  stilted,  and 
insipid.  Even  such  a  gifted  student  of  German  literature 
as  Deschamps  could  not  transcribe  the  simple  phrases  of 
the  German  poet  into  corresponding  colloquial  expressions, 
but  took  refuge  in  rhetorical  eloquence.  Despite  their  in- 
adequacy, these  translations  had  a  stimulating  effect  upon 
French  writers.  They  now  exerted  their  talents  to  com- 
pose French  ballads  in  the  German  style. 

In  the  French  lyric  poetry  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  with  the  exception  of  the  choruses 
of  Esther  and  Athalie,  little  reference  to  nature  is  found. 
Goethe's  intimate  understanding  of  the  varied  phenomena 
of  nature  and  his  exquisite  mastery  in  delineating  its  re- 

1  Among  the  translations  of  this  drama  may  be  mentioned 
those  by  E.  Borel  (1855),  A.  Legrelle  (1870),  and  by  Eugene 
d'Eichthal  (1900). 


Germany  and  France  125 

lations  to  man  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  French 
and  prepared  the  way  for  the  natural  symbolism  and  pan- 
theistic mysticism  of  the  early  Romanticists. 

Another  influence  not  to  be  disregarded  was  the  enrich- 
ment of  the  French  language  by  the  introduction  of  new 
words  and  metaphors  from  the  German.  This  tendency 
was  especially  noticeable  in  the  Romanticists,  who  were 
constantly  creating  so  many  new  words,  expressions,  and 
compounds,  that  Sainte-Beuve  declared  in  1825  :* 

"  On  rirait  d'un  auteur,  dont  les  vers  trop  franqais 
Ni  d'un   mot  colossal  le  hardi  barbarisme, 
Au  lecteur  mecontent  ne  presentent  jamais 
Ni  d'un  tour  inconnu  l'elegant  germanisme." 

But  the  most  important  influence  of  the  German  lyric 
was  not  creating  an  incentive  for  imitation,  but  rather 
arousing  an  inspiration  for  original  production.3 

To  Goethe,  "  the  lyric  poet  par  excellence,"  Edouard 
Alletz  gives  due  credit  as  the  great  stimulator  of  this  new 
French  lyricism.4  He  says :  '  The  fourth  school  in  the 
poetry  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  that  which  puts  some- 
times the  drama,  sometimes  philosophy  into  the  ode,  and 
which  gives  to  the  ballad  the  majesty  of  the  epic,  to  the 
romance  the  movement  of  tragedy,  and  to  the  song  the 
proportions  of  the  dithyramb.  Goethe  is  the  founder  of 
this  species  which  has  widened  the  bounds  of  lyric  poetry." 

1  L 'Art  poetxque  a  V Usage  du  dix-neuvieme  Sicclc. 

1  One  would  laugh  at  an  author  whose  too  Frenchy  verses  did 
not  present  to  the  dissatisfied  reader  the  bold  barbarism  of  a 
colossal  word  or  the  elegant  germanism  of  an  unknown  phrase. 

3  Cf.  the  words  of  a  French  critic :  "  When  one  reads  the  German 
lyrics  one  finds  himself  thrust  into  deep  meditations  upon  man 
and  nature.  This  poetry  does  not  arouse  in  the  reader  a  desire 
of  imitation  ;  but,  what  is  of  more  value,  it  excites  thought,  it  can 
awaken  original  inspiration."     Cf.  Siipfle,  II,  p.  169. 

*  Genie  du  XIXe  Siecle,  1842-43. 


126         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

As  an  epic  writer,  too,  Goethe  was  greatly  esteemed  in 
France.  His  chosen  classic  poem,  Hermann  und  Dorothea, 
which  had  been  translated  as  early  as  1800  by  Bitaube, 
two  years  later  by  Boulard,  and  by  Xavier  Marmier  in 
1829,1  found  sympathetic  critics.  It  inspired  likewise  many 
domestic  poems  and  idylls,  mostly  in  prose  form.2  When 
the  Parnassians  gained  the  literary  leadership,  Hermann 
und  Dorothea  grew  steadily  in  popularity.  To  them 
Goethe  was,  in  Gautier's  language,  "  the  Jupiter  of  Wei- 
mar, the  marmorean  poet,  the  great  plastic,"  and  his  poem 
a  true  epic  of  the  German  bourgeoisie.  From  i860  to  the 
present  decade  thirteen  new  translations  of  this  epic  have 
appeared.  Besides,  it  was  used  as  the  libretto  of  an  opera  3 
and  as  the  theme  of  innumerable  reviews.4  Renan  admired 
it  immensely,  and  Paul  Stapfer  declared  in  1881  that 
Hermann  und  Dorothea  and  Iphigenie  were  Goethe's  two 
classic  masterpieces. 

To  show  the  powerful  influence  of  Goethe's  first  novel, 
Werther,  on  the  world,  J.  W.  Appell 5  has  furnished  ample 
evidence.  For  French  literature  Baldensperger 6  has  col- 
lected a  similar  bibliography  of  416  titles,  consisting  of 
translations,  adaptations,  reviews,  commentaries,  and  other 
works    inspired    by    this    book.      As    the    quintessence    of 


1  Marmier's  version  had  eleven  new  editions  in  the  following 
years :  1839,  1841,  1842,  1850,  1857,  1859,  1862,  1864,  1865,  1872,  and 
1881. 

2  Lamartine,  Jocelyn,  1836;  George  Sand,  Andre,  1835;  Augier, 
Gabrielle;  Valery  Vernier,  Aline,  1856;  Louise  Colet,  Pocme  de  la 
Femme:  La  Servante,  1854;  Victor  Laprade,  Pernette,  1868. 

"Hermann  et  Dorothee:  Opera  en  trois  actes  et  quatre  tableaux, 
de  J.  Goujon,  musique  de  Fred,  le  Rey,  Dec.  6,  1894. 

4  See  Baldensperger :  Bibliographic  critique  de  Goethe  en  France, 
pp.  180-88. 

8  Werther  und  seine  Zeit,  Oldenburg,  1896. 

e  Bib.  Crit.,  pp.  5-49. 


Germany  and  France  127 

Weltschmerz  or  mal  de  siecle  this  novel  has  no  equal.  Of 
its  great  influence  the  aged  Lamartine  said  in  1866:  "The 
melancholy  of  great  passion  was  inoculated  in  me  by  this 
book.  I  went  in  it  to  the  bottom  of  the  human  abyss.  .  .  . 
One  must  have  ten  souls  to  master  thus  the  soul  of  a  whole 
century."  1 

When  the  first  part  of  Wilhelm  Meister,  Goethe's  great- 
est novel,  was  translated  in  1802  and  also  in  1803,  it  re- 
ceived a  very  cool  reception.  Perhaps  this  was  due  to  the 
faulty  and  mediocre  rendition  of  the  original.  A  later 
translation  of  the  Lehrjahre  by  Theodore  Toussenel  in 
1829  was  much  better,  as  also  the  translations  of  both 
parts  by  the  Baroness  de  Carlowitz  (1843)  and  by  Theo- 
phile  Gautier,  fils  (1861).2  This  novel,  which  Emile 
Montegut  calls  the  "  gospel  of  useful  action  and  effective 
resignation,"  never  found  many  readers,  despite  its  philo- 
sophical breadth  and  original  character.  This  was  due, 
no  doubt,  to  its  numerous  details  and  digressions.  Two 
of  its  characters,  however,  have  left  a  deep  and  undying 
impression  on  French  literature,  the  old  harper  and  the 
weird  little  Mignon.  Their  songs  have  become  naturalized 
on  French  soil.  In  poetry,  Theophile  Gautier  has  immor- 
talized Mignon  in  his  Albertus  (1831);  in  fiction,  George 
Sand  in  Consuclo  (1842-43);  Gautier  in  Lc  Capitaine 
Fracasse  (1863),  and  Victor  Hugo  in  Notre-Dame  de 
Paris   (1830);3   in   painting,   Ary    Scheffer   exhibited   two 

1  Cf.  Alfred  de  Musset :  Confession  d'un  Enfant  du  Siecle. 
Among  worthy  imitations  of  Werther  are  Chateaubriand,  Rene, 
1802;  Mme.  de  Stael,  Delphine,  1802,  and  Corinne,  1807;  Etienne  de 
Senancour,  Oberman,  1804:  Benjamin  Constant,  Adolphe,  1816; 
Charles  Nodier,  Peintre  de  Salzbonrg,  1803,  and  Adcle,  1820;  Mme. 
de  Kriidener,  Valerie,  1803. 

2  New  editions  in  1868  and  1874. 
8  Character  of  Esmeralda. 


128        Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

pictures  in  the  Salon  in  1839  ;x  in  music  there  is  the  melody 
by  Duparc,  "La  Romance  de  Mignon  "  (1871-73);  and 
in   the    drama,    the   two-act   play    of   Gaston    de   Monteau 

(1851). 

Like  Wilhelm  Meister,  Die  W  ahlverwandtschaften  found 

slight  approval.  It  was  translated  twice  in  1810,  then  in 
1844  by  Mme.  de  Carlo witz,  and  in  1872  by  Camille  Selden 
(Heine's  friend).  Nevertheless,  as  early  as  1834,  it  had  a 
descendant  in  a  novel  Henri  Far  el,  by  Louis  Lavater  (Louis 
Spach)  (1834).  Later,  however,  when  scientific  fiction 
came  into  vogue,  the  psychological  merit  of  this  novel  was 
acknowledged. 

To  Mme.  de  Stael  belongs  the  credit  of  introducing  Faust 
to  the  French  nation.  In  De  l'Allemagne  she  gave  a  criti- 
cal synopsis  of  Part  I,  interspersed  with  various  transla- 
tions. To  modern  readers  her  criticism  seems  a  mixture 
of  enthusiastic  admiration  for  its  poetic  beauties  combined 
with  a  slight  horror  at  its  utter  disregard  of  classic  tra- 
ditions. Although  she  considered  Mephistopheles  the  hero 
of  the  drama  and  did  not  realize  the  import  of  the  Lord's 
words :  "  Es  irrt  der  Mensch  so  lang  er  strebt,"  she  de- 
serves the  greatest  esteem  for  bringing  this  work  in  appre- 
ciative form  to  her  countrymen. 

Ten  years  later  (1823)  appeared  the  first  complete  trans- 
lation of  Part  I,  by  Albert  Stapfer,  the  son  of  the  Swiss 
ambassador  at  Paris.  A  young  man  well  versed  in  the 
language  and  literature  of  both  countries,  he  was  pecu- 
liarly fitted  for  his  task.  His  translation,  in  prose  and 
poetry,  was  preceded  by  a  short  sketch  of  the  Faust  legend, 
by   a   biographical   and  literary   notice   of   Goethe   and  by 

1 "  Mignon  Lamenting  for  Her  Country  "  and  "  Mignon  Longing 
for  Heaven." 


Germany  and  France  129 

numerous  explanatory  notes.  Stapfer's  work  was  so  exact 
and  conscientious  that  he  won  the  approval  of  Goethe.1 
He  also  planned  a  translation  of  the  forthcoming  second 
part,  and  communicated  with  Goethe  on  that  subject.  Un- 
fortunately, however,  he  gave  up  the  plan  and  contented 
himself  by  issuing  another  edition  in  1828,  a  revised  and 
corrected  one  in  1838. 

The  same  year  that  saw  the  Stapfer  translation  wit- 
nessed another  version — that  by  the  statesman  and  his- 
torian, Comte  de  Sainte-Aulaire.  It  appeared  as  the  last 
volume  of  Ladvocat's  Chefs-d'oeuvre  des  Theatres  Strangers. 
Sainte-Aulaire's  translation  is  also  in  prose  and  poetry. 
It  is  preceded  by  a  notice  on  Faust,  at  the  end  of  which 
is  a  eulogy  on  Mme.  de  Stael  for  her  appreciative  criticism 
and  translation  in  De  I'Allemagne.  Sainte-Aulaire's  aim 
is,  like  in  the  famous  parallel  of  Wieland's  translation  of 
Shakespeare,  evidently  "  klar  denken  und  klar  sprechen," 
for  he  omits  every  passage  that  he  does  not  clearly  under- 
stand and  even  goes  so  far  as  to  leave  out  whole  scenes  in 
which  mysterious  characters  appear.  Like  Mme.  de  Stael, 
he  retains  some  of  his  classical  prejudices,  but  he  lacks  her 
genius  and  eloquence. 

The  third  translator,  Gerard  de  Nerval,  an  intimate 
friend  of  Heine,  follows  the  tradition  of  Stapfer.  In  his 
prefatory  remarks  he  outlines  the  legend,  gives  a  sketch 
of  the  historical  Faust,  and  of  the  translations  that  have 
hitherto  appeared,  describes  the  characters,  compares  Faust 
with  Manfred  and  Don  Juan,  and  ends  with  the  opinion 
that  Faust  will  finally  escape  perdition,  as  through  repent- 
ance he  may  regain  Heaven.  This  hint  at  the  possible  re- 
demption of  Faust  indicates  Gerard's  keen  critical  ability. 
Eckermann  in  his  Conversations  with  Goethe  says  the  fol- 
1  See  Kunst  und  Altertum,  1826. 


130        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

lowing  concerning  this  translation :  x  "  Goethe  praised 
Gerard's  translation,  although  mostly  in  prose,  as  very 
successful.  '  I  no  longer  like,'  he  said,  '  to  read  Faust  in 
German,  but  in  this  French  translation  everything  is  again 
new,  fresh,  and  significant.' '  In  1840  Gerard  translated 
the  second  part  with  some  omissions,  and  the  entire  version 
has  seen  eight  editions,  the  last  one  in  1881.2  As  transla- 
tor, Gerard  possessed  a  high  poetic  talent.  The  rhythmic 
swing  of  his  prose  transcribes  very  well  Goethe's  graphic 
word-pictures.  Unlike  his  predecessor,  Sainte-Aulaire,  his 
work  marks  a  decided  advance,  and  will  undoubtedly  re- 
main one  of  the  best  translations  in  the  French  language. 
Through  these  three  translations  as  well  as  through 
the  restless  desire  for  originality  among  the  younger  French 
writers,  Faust  became  a  powerful  and  directive  factor. 
The  mighty  struggle  of  the  hero  to  fathom  the  secret  of 
the  universe  was,  of  course,  an  effective  force;  but  upon 
the  enthusiastic  yet  sceptical  Romanticists  the  forms  of 
Gretchen  and  Mephistopheles  were  more  powerful  agencies. 
As  a  literary  critic  aptly  wrote :  "  In  Mephistopheles  es- 
pecially behold  a  man  of  the  new  literary  school,  the  great 
prototype  of  the  various  types  that  vie  with  one  another, 
of  the  heroes  of  the  poetic  and  romantic  creations  of  to- 
day, and  of  the  very  authors  of  these  productions.  The 
satanic  philosophy  of  Mephistopheles  has  been  enjoyed 
more  in  France  than  the  doctrines  of  Kant  or  of  Schelling, 
and  the  Devil  has  been  a  more  eloquent  professor  than 
Cousin."  3  This  drama  called  into  existence  many  works, 
especially  from   1830  to   1840.4 

1  Eckermann,  Jan.  3,  1830. 

2  See  Baldensperger :  Bib.  Crit.,  pp.  91-92. 

8  Bibliotheque  universelle  de  Geneve,  1834,  LV,  p.  177. 
4Theophile  Gautier.  Albertus,  1831,  and  La  Comedie  de  la  Mort, 
1838;  Edgar  Quinet,  Ahasverus,  1833,  and  Promethee,  1838;  George 


Germany  and  France  131 

Aside  from  these  more  serious  writings  in  which  were 
exhibited  the  lofty  strivings  of  a  titanic  nature,  there  arose 
many  lyrical  and  musical  imitations  in  which  Faust  appears 
as  a  commonplace  lover  who  sells  his  soul  to  the  devil  for 
money  whereby  he  may  win  Gretchen.  An  exception  to 
these  lighter  operatic  dramas  is  the  "  programme  music  " 
of  Hector  Berlioz,  the  Damnation  of  Faust  (1829),  and 
Gounod's  opera  in  1859. 

To  art  the  Faust  drama  was  an  inspiration.  In  1825 
Eugene  Delacroix  went  to  England,  where  he  saw  Retzsch's 
outlines,  and  was  especially  attracted  by  his  representation 
of  Mephistopheles.  On  his  return  to  France  he  made 
seventeen  lithographs  for  a  new  edition  of  Stapfer's  trans- 
lation. Of  them  Goethe  said  to  Eckermann : 1  "  Delacroix 
is  a  great  genius,  who  has  found  just  the  right  sort  of 
nourishment  in  Faust.  .  .  .  He  will,  I  hope,  illustrate  the 
whole  of  it  and  I  anticipate  much  pleasure  from  the  Hexen- 
kuche  and  the  Brockenscenen.  .  .  .  And,  if  I  must  con- 
fess that  Delacroix  has  in  many  instances  surpassed  my 
own  conception  of  the  scenes  that  I  myself  have  created, 
will  not  readers  find  them  full  of  life  and  outreaching  their 
own  imaginations?"  Besides  these  plates,  Delacroix  ex- 
hibited eight  other  paintings  and  drawings  on  the  same 
subject.2 

Sand,  Lelia,  1833,  and  Les  Sept  Cordes  de  la  Lyre,  1839;  Balzac, 
Louis  Lambert,  1832;  Charles  Nodier,  Le  nouveaii  Faust  et  la 
nouvelle  Marguerite,  1832;  Eugene  Sue,  La  Salamandre,  1832; 
Musset,  La  Coupe  et  les  Levres ;  Blaze  de  Bury,  Le  Souper  du  Com- 
mandeur,  1834;  Lamartine,  Jocelyn,  1836;  Eugene  Robin,  Livia, 
1836;  Jean  Pecontal,  Volberg,  1837;  Albert  Soumet,  La  Divine 
Epopee,  1840;  Saint-Rene  Taillandier,  Beatrice,  1840;  Auguste 
Barbier,  Prostrate,   1837;   and   Gerard   de   Nerval,  Leo   Burckhard, 

1839. 
1  Nov.  29,  1826. 
a"  Mephistopheles  Appearing  to  Faust,"  1827;  "Faust  and  Mephis- 


132         Madame  de  Stael's  "De  l'Allemagne  " 

Another  artist  who  vied  with  Delacroix  in  Faust  pic- 
tures, but  who  preferred  the  gentler  and  more  sentimental 
aspects  of  the  drama,  was  Ary  Scheffer,  to  whom  we  owe 
seven  representations  of  Gretchen  at  different  phases  of 
her  life,  five  of  Faust,  and  three  of  Mignon.  As  an  able 
critic  writes:  "  Of  all  the  writers  who  have  inspired  Schef- 
fer, Goethe  is  certainly  the  one  who  has  made  the  liveliest 
impression  upon  his  mind."  1 

In  1840  appeared  the  first  complete  translation  of  Faust 
by  Henri  Blaze  de  Bury,  a  work  that  had  twelve  editions 
by  1869,  and  which  will  always  rank  among  the  most 
scholarly  translations  of  that  drama.  For  three  years 
Blaze  worked  on  his  version  and  aimed  to  combine  exact- 
ness of  rendition  with  genuine  poetic  feeling  and  expression. 
To  him  the  "  poem  of  Faust  is  the  song  of  naturalism,  the 
gospel  of  pantheism,  but  of  an  ideal  pantheism,  that  exalts 
matter  into  spirit."  That  Blaze  succeeded  in  his  task  is 
maintained  by  Lerminier,2  who  asserted  that  now  for  the 
first  time  the  French  people  had  a  "  complete  translation, 
poetic  and  scholarly,  of  the  greatest  monument  of  German 
literature." 

During  the  period  following  this  translation  there  arose 
many  critical  essays  on  the  philosophical  and  sesthetical 
significance  of  this  drama,  and  the  effort  was  made  to 
correlate  it  with  the  poet's  life.  To  further  this  study, 
many  translations  of  autobiographical  or  semi-autobio- 
graphical works  appeared.     These  did  much  to  correct  the 

topheles,"  1828;  "Margaret  in  the  Church,"  1846;  "Death  of  Valen- 
tine," 1848;  "  Mephistopheles  Soaring  Through  the  Air"  (pen  and 
ink);  "Margaret  in  Prison"  (water  color)  ;  "Faust  in  His  Study" 
(water  color)  ;  and  "  Faust  and  Wagner  Discoursing  in  the  Coun- 
try" (sepia). 

1  Larousse,  XIV,  p.  342. 

2  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Jan.  15,  1846. 


Germany  and  France  133 

false  impression  regarding  the  German  poet,  according  to 
which  Goethe,  as  the  great  '  Talleyrand  of  art," 1  "  a 
dried-up  soul,"  2  "  the  great  Mephisto,"  3  "  whose  thought 
was  a  universe,"  4  sat,  an  Olympian  Jupiter,  on  his  Weimar 
throne,  impassive,  devoid  of  human  sympathy,  incapable 
of  human  affection,  and  most  indifferent  to  the  trials  of 
the  German   fatherland. 

What  is  very  characteristic  of  the  high  ethical  and  philo- 
sophical nature  of  Faust  is  that,  although  the  uninitiated 
considered  it  an  enigma,  a  confused  mixture  of  extrava- 
gance, eccentricity,  and  ambiguity,  of  unworthy  form  and 
content,  the  thinkers  and  philosophers  found  it  very  intelli- 
gible and  full  of  profound  meaning.  This  was  especially 
true  of  the  second  part.  Lerminier  called  it  "  the  lyric 
choir  of  German  ontology,"  Willm  declared  (1849)  it  was 
the  embodiment  of  Goethe's  philosophy,  and  the  following 
year  Bazy 5  wrote :  '  Human  activity  is  extolled ;  .  .  . 
purged  of  its  illusions,  it  comes  forth  from  the  abyss  of 
misery  into  which  fatalism  and  despair  had  plunged  the 
Faust  of  Marlowe.  .  .  .  Guided  by  another  Beatrice,  by 
poetry  that  begins  his  purification,  Goethe's  hero  finds  life's 
fullness  in  religious  faith.  With  science,  that  always  trans- 
fers the  most  noble  faculties  of  the  heart  and  of  intelligence 
into  the  presence  of  divinity,  poetry  gave  to  Faust  that 
faculty  of  regeneration  (se  transhumaner)  which  in  Dante 
comes  from  grace." 

When  Albert  Castelman  wrote  La  Question  religieuse  in 
1 86 1,  he  devoted  an  entire  chapter  to  Goethe,  and  declared 

1  Sainte-Beuve,  1835. 

2  Lamennais,  1841. 
8  Michelet,  1842. 

4  De  Banville,  1841. 

6  Etudes  historiques,  litteraires,  et  philosophiques  sur  Marlowe 
et  Faust,  1850. 


134         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

that  Faust  is  "  vast  as  a  hymn  to  nature,  fatalistic  and 
progressive  at  the  same  time.  .  .  .  Faust  symbolizes  well 
the  thought  of  our  age."  1 

The  year  following  Legrelle  wrote : 2  "  For  him  who  is 
able  to  comprehend  Faust,  it  is  not  a  soul,  unless  it  be 
Goethe's;  it  is  not  an  age,  e.  g.,  the  eighteenth  century; 
it  is  man  or  humanity,  whichever  you  like.  What  makes 
the  action  true  in  this  dramatic  poem  is  the  moral  destiny 
of  all." 

As  early  as  1823,  the  first  part  of  Dichtung  und  Wahr- 
heit  had  been  translated  into  French  by  Aubert  de  Vitry, 
and  read  with  much  interest.  Soret's  Notices  de  Goethe, 
consisting  of  fragments  of  letters  and  conversations,  had 
been  published  in  the  Bibliotheque  universelle  in  1832.  In 
1844  there  appeared  for  the  first  time  the  complete  trans- 
lation of  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  by  H.  Richelet,  and 
Goethe  the  man,  as  revealed  in  this  work,  began  to  be 
known  to  the  French  public.  About  the  same  time  (1843) 
Bettina  von  Arnim's  so-called  Briefwechsel  mit  einem 
Kinde  appeared  in  the  translation  of  S.  Albin  (Mme. 
Cornu).  However,  it  was  not  until  after  i860  that  Mme. 
de  Carlowitz  translated  the  Briefivechsel  zwischen  Goethe 
und  Schiller  (1863).  Eckermann's  Gesprache  appeared 
in  two  translations,  by  J.  N.  Charles  (1863)  and  by  Emile 
Delerot  (1863);  H.  Rochelet  followed  them  with  a  new 
edition  of  Goethe's  memoirs  and  a  comprehensive  life  of 
the  poet.  Daniel  Stern  (Mme.  d'Agoult),  in  an  exhaustive 
study,  Dante  et  Goethe  (1866),  declared  that  the  French 
did  not  know  Goethe,  that  the  true  lesson  of  his  life  was 
culture,  development  of  personality,  and  a  constant  progres- 
sion  toward  a  better  and  more   noble   existence.     Renan, 

1  Chap,  ix,  p.  161. 

2  Revue  de  I'Instruction  publique,  Dec.  11,  1862. 


Germany  and  France  135 

who  had  read  Faust  in  1845,  contradicted  the  accusation 
that  Goethe  was  not  patriotic  by  asserting  that  the 
poet  was  in  his  own  way  a  creator  of  the  German 
fatherland. 

Already  in  1845  Renan  had  said:1  "The  philosopher  is 
the  thinker,  whatever  may  be  the  object  upon  which  he 
exercises  his  thought."  To  the  French  Goethe  was  the 
poetic  interpreter  of  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  Schelling, 
Hegel,  and  of  Spinoza.  On  him  and  on  Byron,  according 
to  the  clergyman  Maret,2  rested  the  guilt  of  being  the  first 
to  introduce  pantheism  into  poetry.  This  statement  alarmed 
the  French  clergy,  for  behind  the  pantheism  of  Schelling 
and  Hegel  was  the  biblical  exegesis  of  Strauss,  and  they 
were  most  active  in  denouncing  Goethe  as  a  heretic.  But 
thinkers  like  Remusat  and  Caro  continued  to  write  on 
German  philosophy  and  to  consider  Goethe  as  an  exponent 
of  lofty  thought,  fit  to  rank  beside  the  great  philosophers 
who  had  definite  metaphysical  systems.  As  to  the  charge 
of  irreligion,  Montegut 3  replies  most  aptly :  "  If  the  proper 
attitude  of  man  is  to  hold  his  head  erect  and  to  look  toward 
heaven,  I  do  not  know  of  a  poet  that  imposes  more  nat- 
urally this  attitude  upon  his  readers  than  Goethe.  You 
smile,  perhaps,  at  the  religious  character  which  I  attribute 
to  Goethe,  to  that  Goethe  who,  because  of  those  false 
prejudices  which  for  some  centuries  have  slandered  the 
thought  of  great  men,  has  been  considered  up  to  the  present 
time  among  the  arch-heretics  of  religion.  .  .  .  How  Goethe 
is  religious  will  not  be  understood  before  two  or  three 
generations,  and  then  one  will  be  surprised  at  the  long 
duration  of  the  error  which  transformed  into  a  transcen- 

1  L'Avenir  de  la  Science. 

2  Essai  sur  le  Panthcisme  dans  les  Societes  modernes,  1840. 
8  Moniteur  universe!,  July,  1866 


136         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

dent  dilettante  and  into  a  vulgar  agnostic  and  immoral 
man,  the  greatest  sage  that  ever  lived."  Is  not  Montegut's 
prediction  being  fulfilled? 

The  literary  historian  Taine,  and  the  biblical  scholar 
and  archaeologist  Renan,  were  both  ardent  students  of 
German  philosophy.  Before  1852,  Taine  had  studied 
German  in  order  that  he  might  read  Goethe  and  Hegel 
in. the  original.  While  assisting  at  Nevers,  he  wrote  March 
1852:  "  I  am  trying  to  console  myself  at  present  by  reading 
German  authors.  They  are  for  us  now  what  England  was 
for  France  in  the  time  of  Voltaire.  I  find  ideas  enough 
to  last  a  century."  Like  Goethe,  Taine  believed  in  a  divine 
life  and  in  creative  nature ;  to  him  Goethe  and  Hegel  were 
the  foremost  thinkers  of  the  century. 

In  1840  Renan  went  to  the  seminary  at  Issy  to  study 
philosophy.  Reid  and  Malebranche  first  attracted  him, 
but  soon  he  turned  to  Hegel,  Kant,  and  Herder.  He  saw 
the  contrast  between  the  superficial  pseudo-scientific  re- 
ligion of  the  day  and  the  idealistic  metaphysical  systems 
of  Germany.  From  his  perplexity  his  sister  Henriette 
helped  him  out.  "  If,"  she  wrote  him,  "  you  continue  your 
studies  in  the  language  of  Kant,  of  Hegel,  of  Goethe,  and 
of  Schiller,  you  will  find  many  sweet  distractions  in  this 
literature,  so  rich  and  varied."  And  Renan  was  indeed 
surprised  to  discover  in  German  literature  his  own  ideas 
and  convictions.  As  author,  too,  of  La  Vie  de  Jesus,  he 
was  ever  grateful  to  Germany,  the  land  of  biblical  exegesis. 

The  war  of  1870  broke  for  a  time  the  charm  by  which 
German  culture  and  Goethe  influenced  French  literature*; 
party  hatred  and  patriotic  zeal  now  decried  him  as 
"  mediocre  "  1  and  "  not  a  great  man  at  all."  2      His  per- 

1  Edmond  Scherer,  1872. 

3  Dumas  fils,   1893.     An   interesting  parallel   is   furnished  in  the 


Germany  and  France  137 

sonality  and  literary  works  were  subjected  to  severe  criti- 
cism by  literary  critics.  At  this  time,  however,  there  was 
begun  a  thorough  research  by  historians  of  all  the  varied 
conditions  that  gave  rise  to  Goethe's  philosophical  and 
scientific  studies.  In  a  work  written  before  the  war  but 
not  published  until  1872,  A.  Mezieres  1  maintained  that  the 
very  best  commentary  on  Goethe's  works  was  found  in  the 
details  of  his  own  life.  This  book  was  very  effective  in 
lessening  the  feeling  of  bitter  hatred  against  the  German 
Goethe.  About  1880  a  renaissance  of  Goethean  study  began. 
Many  discriminating  articles  appeared  in  the  magazines, 
and  numerous  excellent  translations  of  his  works  were 
forthcoming.  In  his  Bibliographie  critique  de  Goethe  en 
France  Baldensperger  gives  the  names  of  ten  translations 
of  Faust  that  appeared  after  1880,  besides  the  many  adapta- 
tions, continuations,  commentaries,  and  the  like.  To  the 
French,  Faust  now  becomes,  in  the  words  of  Anatole 
France,2  "  The  glorification  of  the  activity  and  of  the  genius 
of  man,  the  exhortation  to  intelligent  action." 

About  1893,  when  the  reaction  against  realism  began, 
Faust  was  studied  most  thoroughly  by  the  younger  poets 
of  symbolism.  An  aid  in  this  intense  study  was  the  new 
metrical  translation  by  Francois  Sabatier,  according  to  Dr. 
Martha  Langkavel,3  probably  the  best  version  yet  produced 
in  French. 

Sabatier  was  well  fitted  for  his  task.  He  knew  Germany, 
understood  fourteen  languages,  and  through  his  marriage 
with  the  noted  singer,  Karoline  Unger,  he  had  an  intelli- 

present  European  crisis  by  the  sudden  depreciation  of  Wagner  and 
German  music  in  general  in  the  lands  of  the  Allies. 

1  IV.  Goethe,  Les  QLuvres  e.vpliquces  par  sa  Vie. 

2  Revue  politique  et  litteraire,  Aug.  3,  1889. 

"Die  franzosischen  Obertragungen  von  Goethes  Faust,  Strass- 
burg,  1902. 


138         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

gent  critic  to  aid  him  in  obtaining  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  German  idiom. 

Sabatier's  meter  is  true  to  the  original ;  he  renders  the 
octaves,  iambics,  Hans  Sachs  couplet,  free  rhythm,  blank 
verse,  and  alexandrines  of  the  original  into  corresponding 
verse  forms  in  the  French  language.  In  fidelity  to  mean- 
ing he  is  unequaled  by  other  translators ;  the  few  errors 
that  arise  are  due  to  metrical  exigencies.  He  even  under- 
stood how  to  transcribe  adequately  the  colloquial  speech 
of  such  scenes  as  Auerbachs  Keller.  His  success  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  burst  asunder  the  stiff  classic  tradition 
in  which  French  versification  had  been  enshrined  so 
long.  He  gave  back  to  French  poetry  the  long-lost  free- 
dom, the  archaic  words  and  expressions  of  the  time  of 
Marot.1 

Let  us  return  now  to  the  symbolists.  Maeterlinck  con- 
sidered the  second  part  of  Faust  and  the  Marchen  as  "  sym- 
bols of  set  purpose."  Brunetiere  even  declared 2  that 
Racine  or  Moliere  had  not  always  attained  that  depth  of 
thought  which  is  found  in  a  Shakespeare  or  in  a  Goethe. 
The  German  sage  now  became  the  liberator  and  bene- 
factor of  mankind,  teaching  the  employment  of  active 
wisdom  and  energy  to  the  amelioration  of  individual  mis- 
fortune. 

In  Goethe  en  France,  Professor  Baldensperger  has  so 
well  summarized  the  influence  exerted  at  different  epochs 
by  the  German  poet  on  French  thought,  that  I  shall  refer 
to  his  conclusion.  From  1778  to  1804  Goethe  was  the' 
"  illustrious  Goethe,"  in  1825  he  became  "  the  grand-priest 
of  romantic  literature,"  in   1849  he  was  considered  "  the 

1  Cf.  Eckermann,  Apr.  13,  1823. 

3  L'£volution  des  Genres  dans  I'Histoire  de  la  Litterature,  4th  ed., 
1906. 


Germany  and  France  139 

most  universal  genius  of  modern  times,"  about  1862  he 
had  the  reputation  of  an  impassible,  indifferent,  all-com- 
prehensive Jupiter,  after  the  war  he  was  a  commonplace 
thinker,  and  from  1880  on  he  has  been  the  subject  of  in- 
creasing interest  and  of  discriminating  research.  In  fact, 
the  Goethean  spirit  is  tending  daily  to  spread  farther  and 
farther  over  France  and  the  world  itself. 

It  may  be  that  in  France  Goethe  has  never  at  any  time 
been  the  rage,  like  Ossian  and  Hoffmann,  but  his  fame 
has  been  far  more  enduring.1  Although  he  has  not  di- 
rectly influenced  the  great  masses  of  the  French  people, 
through  his  great  influence  on  the  elite  of  French  minds, 
on  great  writers  like  Chateaubriand,  Mme.  de  Stael,  Sainte- 
Hilaire,  Taine,  and  Renan,  he  has  indirectly  molded  French 
thought.  As  is  always  true,  the  devotees  of  narrow  re- 
ligious creeds  have  been  hostile  to  his  broad  and  tolerant 
faith ;  but  for  the  advance  guard  of  thinkers  who  wage  the 
battle  against  narrowing  traditions,  for  those  men  who 
have  consecrated  their  talents  and  lives  to  the  welfare  of 
humanity,  he  stands  for  quiet  and  constant  progress.  In 
every  onward  phase  of  influence  his  works  have  presented  a 
new  aspect.  In  the  theoretic  campaign  of  romanticism 
against  classicism,  his  dramas  and  ballads  were  invoked  as 
authorities ;  for  the  fall  of  romanticism,  his  classic  works 
furnished  arguments  and  illustrations ;  when  positivism  was 
seeking  precedents  in  scientific  inquiry,  Goethe  and  his 
works  were  cited  as  an  example  of  methodical  research 
and  culture,  and  later,  when  symbolism  was  gaining  a  foot- 
hold in  literature,  it  pointed  to  Goethe  as  its  predecessor. 
In  all  these  varied  phases  of  literary  endeavor  Goethe  has 
not  only  shown  himself  leader  and  educator,  but  also 
1  Cf.  Eckermann,  July  25,  1827. 


140         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

mediator  between  the  opposing  forces  in  moral  and  philo- 
sophical thought. 

Of  all  the  great  French  writers  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury Victor  Hugo,  so  popular  among  the  masses,  was  the 
only  one  who  in  maturer  life  was  a  bitter  opponent  of 
Goethe  and  his  works.  This  may  be  explained  by  their 
difference  in  temperament,  in  philosophy,  and  in  mode  of 
activity.  In  his  life  and  writings  Hugo  represented  the 
struggle  for  outward  liberty  against  despotism ;  Goethe, 
the  strife  for  inner  freedom,  for  ideality  and  unfettered 
thought,  for  the  liberation  of  the  inner  man  from  the  gall- 
ing chains  of  habits,  customs,  prejudices,  ignorance,  and 
heredity.  Goethe's  ideal  is  inherent,  not  opposed  to  reality, 
but  seeking  its  expansion.  Man  must  develop  from  within 
outward.  Every  epoch  of  human  thought  and  endeavor 
has  somehow  and  somewhere  a  spiritual  vision  of  the  ideal 
to  be  realized  in  the  coming  era.  It  is  therefore  the  task 
of  the  poet  and  seer  to  visualize  this  fleeting  image  of  ideal 
perfection  and  to  embody  it  in  incarnate  form  for  coming 
generations.1  And  this  was  Germany's  mission,  through 
her  noblest  offspring  Goethe,  to  France  and  to  the  world 
at  large.2 

1  Ci.  Eckermann,  Apr.  8  and  io,  1829. 

2  Cf.  Taine :  "  From  1780  to  1830  Germany  brought  forth  the  ideas 
of  our  age;  and  for  one-half  a  century,  perhaps  for  a  whole  cen- 
tury, it  will  be  our  duty  to  reflect  on  them."  ■*. 


CHAPTER  II 

GERMAN  LITERATURE  IN  THE  ENGLISH- 
SPEAKING  LANDS 

It  is  but  natural  to  expect  that  the  influence  of  Mme. 
de  Stael's  book  as  a  cultural  medium,  so  far-reaching  in 
her  own  country,  should  in  like  manner  manifest  itself  in 
England  and  the  United  States  as  well.  It  is  a  matter  of 
historical  record  that  soon  after  the  appearance  of  De 
V Allemagne  the  attitude  of  the  English-speaking  countries, 
up  to  that  time  indifferent,  if  not  outspokenly  hostile  to 
German  letters  and  culture,  began  to  undergo  a  gradual 
but  thoroughgoing  modification.  Victor  Hugo's  dictum 
in  Ninety-three  is  in  this  instance  also  exemplified  to  the 
full.  "  An  invasion  of  armies  can  be  resisted,  an  invasion 
of  ideas  cannot  be  resisted."  German  thought  began  to 
be  appreciated  and  assimilated.  In  this  traffic  of  thought, 
the  magazines  of  the  two  countries  under  consideration 
were  of  inestimable  value,  because  with  their  insistent  dis- 
cussion of  the  newly-discovered  land  of  literature  they  were 
able  to  reach  a  larger  circle  of  interested  readers  than 
could  the  works  of  individual  writers.  It  will  not  then 
be  out  of  place  to  devote  a  few  pages  to  this  disseminating 
agency,  before  the  indebtedness  of  men  of  letters  to  Ger- 
man culture  is  more  fully  treated. 

As  soon  as  De  I' Allemagne   appeared   in  print,   it  was 

eagerly   read   and   reviewed  by  no  less  able  a  critic   than 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  in  the   Edinburgh  Review}     This 

1  XXII,  pp.  198-238,  Oct.,  1813. 

141 


142         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

English  magazine  '  was  the  first  of  its  kind ;  it  had  no 
antecedents  or  precedents  in  true  literary  criticism.  It 
bounded  into  the  arena  of  active  thought  "  without  the 
countenance  of  birth  or  station,  without  the  imprimatur 
of  the  universities  or  literary  clubs.  Its  avowed  mission 
was  to  erect  a  higher  standard  of  merit  and  secure  a  bolder 
and  purer  taste  in  literature  and  to  apply  principles  and  the 
maxims  of  truth  and  humanity  to  politics,  and  to  aim  to 
be  the  manual  of  the  scholar,  the  monitor  of  the  states- 
man." 2 

Founded  in  1802  by  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  Francis  Jeffrey, 
and  Henry  Brougham,  three  of  the  greatest  men  of  the 
day,  through  its  able  articles  and  learned  and  independ- 
ent spirit,  it  helped  to  change  the  current  of  national 
thought. 

Of  this  magazine  (and  of  the  Foreign  Revieiv  and 
Foreign  Quarterly  Review)  Goethe  wrote,  1828 :3  "These 
magazines  as  they  gradually  win  for  themselves  a  greater 
public,  will  contribute  most  effectively  toward  that  uni- 
versal world-literature  toward  which  we  look  forward ;  only 
we  repeat,  there  must  be  no  talk  about  nations  agreeing  in 
thought  (ubereindenken),  but  about  them  helping  and 
comprehending  one  another,  at  least  bearing  with  one 
another."  *■ 

In  1808  the  London  Examiner,  in  1809  the  London 
Quarterly  Review,  were  founded,  and  eight  years  later  the 
official  organ  of  the  Scotch  Tory  party,  Blackwood's 
Edinburgh  Magazine. 

Perhaps  the  journal  that  contributed  most  to  the  diffu- 

1  See  Bibliographiana,  No.  2,  edited  by  Walter  A.  Copinger,  Man- 
chester, England,  1895.  The  authorship  of  the  first  one  hundred 
numbers  of  the  Edinburgh  Review. 

8  Bib.  VIII. 

1  Kunst  und  Altertum. 


England  143 

sion  of  German  literature  in  this  early  period  was  the  For- 
eign Quarterly  Review,  established  July  1827,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  published  by  the  London  firm 
of  Treuttel  and  Wurtz,  and  edited  by  that  earnest  student 
of  German  literature,  Robert  Pearse  Gillies.  In  October 
1846  it  was  united  with  the  Westminster  Review,  the  name 
and  volume  number  of  the  latter  being  assumed  for  Jan- 
uary 1847.  Of  its  great  work  Goethe  wrote,  July  1827 :x 
'  It  is  most  inspiring,  to  see  how  in  this  magazine  the 
moral  and  aesthetic  strivings  of  the  Germans  are  taken  up 
and  examined.  The  editor  of  this  department  is  a  re- 
markable man,  to  whom  we  owe  many  an  explanation 
about  ourselves  and  about  others." 

Mention  must  also  be  made  of  the  London  Athenccum 
(founded  1828)  and  of  Frasers  Magazine  for  Town  and 
Country  (1830). 

Among  the  American  magazines,  the  first  journal  of 
literary  merit  was  the  Monthly  Anthology  and  Boston 
Review,2  the  official  organ  of  the  "  Anthology  Society,"  a 
club  that  met  weekly  for  the  study  of  literary  questions, 
and  aimed  to  create  higher  standards  in  literature.  Its 
early  members  included  J.  S.  Buckminster,  David  P.  Adams, 
Savage,  Field,  Wra.  Emerson,  Sidney  Willard,  Wm.  Tudor, 
Jr.,  Gorham,  Kirkland,  Wm.  S.  Shaw,  Samuel  C.  Thatcher, 
Andrews  Norton,  George  Ticknor,  Bigelow,  Gardener,  and 
Alex.  H.  Everett. 

Another  important  periodical,  edited  by  Wm.  Tudor  as 
a  bi-monthly,  the  North  American  Review  and  Miscel- 
laneous Journal,  appeared  in  May  1815.  After  the  issue 
of    eight    volumes    the    magazine    was    made    a    quarterly 

1  Kunst  und  Altertam. 

2  See  Memories  of  Youth  and  Manhood,  by  Sidney  Willard,  2 
vols.,   Cambridge,   1855. 


144         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

— its  title  abridged  to  North  American  Review,  and  only 
reviews  and  book  notices  were  accepted  for  its  pages. 
From  1815  to  1900  the  names  of  the  editors  included  such 
men  as  Wm.  Tudor,  Jared  Sparks,  E.  T.  Channing,  and 
Edw.  Everett.  All  of  the  early  editors  were  men  of  broad 
learning,  prominent  in  public  life  and  enthusiastic  for  the 
new  culture.  As  the  chief  organ  of  the  Gottingen  students 
this  magazine  contained  many  stirring  and  epoch-making 
articles  on  German  life  and  literature. 

In  1813,  before  the  establishment  of  the  North  American 
Review,  another  magazine,  of  a  distinctly  religious  char- 
acter, was  formed  under  the  auspices  of  Rev.  W.  E.  Chan- 
ning. It  was  called  the  Christian  Disciple.  Merged  in 
1870  into  the  periodical  Old  and  New,  it  admitted  articles 
both  for  and  against  German  culture;  but  in  it  we  find 
many  stirring  reviews  by  such  enthusiastic  German  scholars 
as  George  Ripley  and  Frederick  Hedge. 

During  the  transcendental  movement  two  other  periodi- 
cals played  an  important  part  in  the  dissemination  of  Ger- 
man culture,  the  Western  Messenger,  founded  in  1835,  with 
a  view  to  present  the  problems  of  literature,  philosophy, 
and  religion  in  a  clear  and  attractive  manner,  to  create  a 
sentiment  for  a  higher  and  nobler  way  of  thinking  and 
living,  and  to  preach  against  slavery,  and  the  Dial  (Boston, 
July  1840  to  April  1844),  founded  by  George  Ripley, 
Margaret  Fuller,  and  R.  W.  Emerson,  with  the  following 
aim :  "  A  perfectly  free  organ  is  to  be  offered  for  the  ex- 
pression of  individual  thought  and  character.  There  are 
no  party  measures  to  be  carried,  no  particular  standard  to 
be  set  up.  A  fair,  calm  tone,  a  recognition  of  universal 
principles,  will,  I  hope,  pervade  the  essays  in  every  form." 
That  the  study  of  German  was  not  confined  wholly  to 
the  North  is  proved  by  the  number  of  articles  on  German 


England  145 

literature  and  of  translations  in  Southern  journals  from 
1835  to  i860.  Unfortunately  most  of  these  magazines, 
such  as  the  Southern  Rose,  Orion,  Southern  Literary 
Messenger,  Magnolia,  Southern  Quarterly  Review,  and 
Chicora,  were  so  short-lived  that  their  influence  could  not 
make  the  deep  and  lasting  impression  that  generally  accom- 
panies a  well-known  and  long-established  literary  authority. 
In  addition  to  the  work  of  these  periodicals,  there  were 
many  other  factors  contributing  to  make  De  I'Allemagne 
a  success  in  England  and  in  America.  Mme.  de  StaeTs 
literary  genius  became  well  known  in  both  countries ;  for 
several  of  her  works  had  been  reviewed  in  the  leading  maga- 
zines, and  English  translations  of  them  had  also  appeared. 
During  her  sojourn  in  England  and  in  her  salons  at  Paris 
and  Coppet  she  had  met  many  distinguished  English 
authors  and  statesmen.  As  the  fearless  opponent  of  Na- 
poleon and  as  the  noted  exile  who  had  escaped  his  domi- 
nation, she  was  a  welcome  guest  in  English  eyes.  Notices 
of  her  work  on  Germany  had  appeared  from  time  to  time, 
and  the  public  was  eager  to  know  its  contents.  The  con- 
fiscation and  destruction  of  the  first  edition  by  Napoleon 
and  the  fortunate  rescue  of  the  precious  manuscript  but 
increased  the  importance  of  the  book  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public.  The  general  prevalence  of  French  taste  in  Eng- 
land and  the  initiative  attempts  of  Mackenzie,  Ash,  Wil- 
liam Taylor  of  Norwich,  Monk  Lewis,  Scott,  Coleridge, 
and  De  Ouincey  were  likewise  instrumental  in  bringing 
Mme.  de  StaeTs  work  into  general  notice.  It  is  now  in 
order  to  consider  these  pioneers  somewhat  in  detail. 


146         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

England 

William  Taylor  of  Norwich  (1765-1836) 

Taylor's  greatest  service  to  the  German  cause  was  really 
before  the  appearance  of  De  l'Allemagne;  yet  he  deserves 
recognition  here  not  only  as  a  forerunner  of  Mme.  de  Stael, 
but  as  a  stimulator  of  Scott,  Monk  Lewis,  George  Bar- 
row, Sotheby,  Sarah  Austin,  Southey,  Sayer,  and  Henry 
Crabb  Robinson,  and  for  his  authorship  of  numerous  lit- 
erary reviews.  As  a  translator  he  produced  versions  of 
Burger's  Lenore  (1790,  published  1796)  ,  and  of  Des 
Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain  (1796),  Lessing's  Nathan 
(1791),  Goethe's  Iphigenie  (1793),  Schiller's  Braut  von 
Messina,  and  of  Wieland's  Gottergesprache  (1795).  His 
reviews  and  essays  are  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  many 
dealing  with  German  literature.  Among  them  may  be 
noted  his  articles  on  Herder's  Zerstreute  Blatter  and 
Brief e  sur  Beforderung  der  Humanitdt,  Goethe's  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Lehrjahre  and  Faust,  Klopstock's  and  Wieland's 
Gesammelte  Werke,  Werner's  Martin  Luther,  August 
Schlegel's  Vorlesungen  iiber  dramatische  Kunst  und  Lite- 
ratur,  and  Friedrich  Schlegel's  Vorlesungen  iiber  die 
Geschichte  der  alien  und  neuen  Literatur.  Not  a  few  of 
these  critiques  and  translations  he  incorporated  in  a  larger 
work  of  three  volumes  under  the  title  An  Historic  Survey 
of  German  Poetry  (1828-30),  the  first  history  of  German 
literature  in  the  English  language.  "  The  hint  to  under- 
take this  work,"  he  says,  "  was  given  by  the  Abbe  Bertola's 
Idea  della  bella  Letteratura  Alemanna.1  Then  with  frag- 
ments, long  since  hewn,  as  it  were,  and  sculptured,  I  at- 
tempt   to    construct   an    English    temple    of    fame    to    the 

aVol.  Ill,  p.  2. 


England  147 

memory  of  those  German  poets,  who  were  much  the  favor- 
ites of  my  youth,  and  remain  the  companions  of  my 
senescence."  1 

Among  the  translations  interspersed  in  this  literary  his- 
tory are  selections  from  the  Norse,  Old  High  German, 
Middle  High  German,  Haller,  Gessner,  Hagedorn,  Klop- 
stock,  Gleim,  Ewald  von  Kleist,  Lessing,  Burger,  Voss, 
Jacobi,  Matthisson,  Denis,  Wieland,  Herder,  Kotzebue, 
Arndt,  and  Korner.  Schiller  appears  in  original  transla- 
tions from  Die  Rauber,  Kabale  und  Licbe,  from  the  Thalia, 
Fiesko,  Die  Braut  von  Messina,  and  Wilhelm  Tell,  also  the 
poems  Der  Toucher,  Hero  und  Leander,  and  Die  Ideale. 
Of  Goethe's  works,  he  gives  many  selections  from  Clavigo, 
Iphigenie,  Egmont,  Faust  (the  cathedral  scene),  and  Wil- 
helm Meister.  Goethe's  poems  are  represented  by  Erlkonig, 
Der  Wanderer,  Mignon's  song,  Der  Sanger,  Der  Zauber- 
lehrling,  Mahomets  Gesang,  Die  Braut  von  Korinth,  and 
The  Sea-Mark.  He  also  quotes  from  other  translators ; 
from  Coleridge's  Wallenstein,  Mellish's  Mary  Stuart, 
Scott's  Gotz,  Holcroft's  Hermann  and  Dorothea,  and 
Shelley's  Walpurgisnacht.  In  his  reviews  Taylor  calls 
Herder  "  the  Plato  of  the  Christian  world,"  and  Schiller 
"  the  ^schylus  of  Germany,  the  loftiest  of  her  tragic 
poets."  2  '  To  Goethe,"  he  says,  "  must  be  awarded  greater 
truth  of  nature  than  to  either  of  his  competitors  "  (Schiller 
and  Kotzebue).  'Kotzebue  appeals  to  the  sympathy, 
Schiller  to  the  admiration,  but  Goethe  to  the  experience."  3 

When  this  work  appeared  Carlyle  reviewed  it  most 
harshly  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  183 1,4  especially  the 

1  Preface  to  Vol.  I,  p.  vi. 
*  III,  pp.  40  and  167. 

'  HI,  P-  377- 

4  Misc.  Essays,  III,  p.  283. 


148         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

chapters  on  Goethe  and  Schiller,  for  whose  writings  Taylor 
had  indeed  but  little  understanding.  The  result  was,  there- 
fore, that  the  reception  accorded  the  Historic  Survey  by 
the  public  was  most  unfavorable,  for  no  critic  arose  to  de- 
fend its  good  qualities  as  an  initiative  English  work  on 
German  literary  history.1  Despite  his  limited  vision,  Wil- 
liam Taylor  must  be  termed  "  the  father  of  German  litera- 
ture "  in  England.2 

Henry  Crabb  Robinson  (1775-1867) 

"A  man  famous  for  conversation  " 3  and  "  the  philoso- 
pher of  the  Unitarians,"  4  was  Henry  Crabb  Robinson.  Be- 
cause of  his  religious  faith  Robinson  was  not  permitted  to 
attend  the  higher  institutions  of  learning.  Nevertheless 
he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  good  knowledge  of  French, 
and  from  his  Norwich  friends  some  ideas  on  German  litera- 
ture. In  1789  "  a  most  eventful  occurrence  "  happened  in 
"  an  introduction  to  William  Taylor  of  Norwich,  who  en- 
couraged in  him  a  growing  taste  for  German  literature,"  5 
and  advised  him  to  go  to  Germany.  In  1800,  by  means  of 
a  small  inheritance,  Robinson  was  able  to  go,  and  remain 
there  more  than  five  years,  studying  and  traveling  and 
coming  "  into  contact  with  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  the  age."  According  to  his  own  statement 6  this 
incident  had  great  influence  on  his  tastes,  feelings,  and 
character.  He  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  the  Brentano 
family,  who  were  all  fervent  admirers  of  Goethe.     In  1801, 

1  See  Goethe's  letter  to  Zelter,  Weimar,  Aug.  20,  1831,  No.  358. 

2  Hayward :  Notes  to  Faust,  p.  279. 

3  Ticknor,  I,  p.  411. 

4  Janet  Ross,  p.  8. 
6  Diary,  I,  p.  27. 

a  Ibid.,  I,  p.  44- 


England  149 

with  Seume  and  the  painter  Schnorr,  he  made  a  trip  to 
Weimar  and  met  Goethe  personally  for  the  first  time.1 
When  Christian  Brentano  had  finished  his  preparatory 
studies  at  Grimma  and  was  ready  for  the  University  of 
Jena,  Robinson  went  thither  with  him;  from  October  1802 
until  his  return  to  England  in  the  latter  part  of  1805,  this 
was  his  home. 

While  at  Jena  (January  1804)  Robinson  met  Mme.  de 
Stael,  and  proved  an  able  assistant  in  helping  her  to  com- 
prehend German  philosophy.2  Soon  after  he  was  again 
presented  to  Goethe  by  Benjamin  Constant,  and  from  that 
time  dates  the  close  friendship  between  the  two  men.  In 
a  letter  to  his  brother  June  3,  1804,  Robinson  writes: 
"  Goethe  is  a  great  man,  not  merely  because  he  has  pro- 
duced masterpieces  of  poetry,  rivaling  the  best  works  of 
antiquity,  but  that  he  is  distinguished  by  an  habitual  man- 
liness, consistency,  vigor,  truth,  and  health  of  opinion  and 
sentiment.  He  is  a  man  of  practical  wisdom,  and  though 
a  Poet  only  as  Artist,  a  critic  in  the  plastic  arts  and  a  pro- 
found judge  in  matters  of  philosophy.  One  of  his  char- 
acteristic qualities,  perhaps  the  most  peculiar  of  all,  is  the 
Universality  of  his  taste.  He  respects  all  things  and  de- 
spises nothing  but  Frivolity.  In  one  of  his  Distiches  3  he 
says :  '  Do  but  go  forward  with  Love  and  Earnestness,  be 
it  what  it  will,  for  this  adorns  so  beautifully  the  German, 
who  is  deformed  by  so  much.'  I  was  therefore  flattered 
enough  by  his  saying  to  me:  "I  see  you  must  have  laid 
great  stress  on  learning  our  language ! '  " 

In  a  letter  to  Zelter,  Aug.  20,   1829,  Goethe  writes  of 

1  Diary,  I,  p.  71. 

2  See  pt.  i,  chap,  iii,  pp.  61-62. 

"  Freunde,  treibet  nur  Alle3  1  it  Ernst  und  Liebe !     Die  beiden 
Stehen  dem  Deutschen  so  schon,  den,  ach,  so  vieles  entstellt." 

Vier  Jahresseiten. 


150         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

his  visit  with  Robinson:  "We  have  just  had  with  us  an 
Englishman,  who,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  studied 
in  Jena,  and  who  since  then  has  followed  up  German  litera- 
ture with  a  perseverance  that  is  quite  incredible.  He  was 
so  well  instructed  in  the  merita  causae  of  our  circum- 
stances, that  even  had  I  wished  to  do  so — and  it  is  our 
usual  way  of  treating  foreigners — I  could  not  have  dared 
to  try  and  humbug  him  with  phrases."  1 

When  Robinson  was  asked  why  he  did  not  write  a  great 
literary  work  on  Goethe  and  German  literature,  he  replied 
that  he  did  not  have  talent  enough.  To  his  old  friend 
Walter  Bagehot,  he  would  reiterate :  "  Sir,  I  have  no  lit- 
erary talent.  I  cannot  write,  I  never  could  write  anything, 
and  never  would  write  anything."  2  But  his  autobiography 
(35  vols.),  journals  (30  vols.),  letters  and  reminiscences 
(36  vols.)  contradict  this  modest  statement.  They  are 
veritable  mines  of  information  in  regard  to  German  litera- 
ture and  to  the  distinguished  people  of  that  day,  who 
cherished  in  the  "  social  narrator,"  and  the  man  "  of  cheer- 
ful yesterdays,"  3  a  helpful,  earnest  friend  and  a  tolerant 
apostle  of  German  thought. 

After  Robinson's  return  to  England  he  tried  by  his 
brilliant  conversation,  by  editorials  and  translations  to 
create  a  sentiment  for  German  literature,  and  especially 
for  Goethe,  who,  in  his  opinion,  was  the  greatest  German 
writer.  The  wall  of  narrow  prejudices  and  religious  an- 
tagonism was  too  strong,  however,  to  be  shattered  by  his 
genial  nature.     It  was  reserved  for  a  sturdier  warrior,  for 

1  See  Diary,  II,  p.  no. 

2  Literary  Studies  of  the  late  Walter  Bagehot,  with  a  prefatory 
memoir,  edited  by  Richard  H.  Hutton,  2  vols.,  London,  1879,  II, 
p.   324. 

3  Wordsworth. 


England  151 

the  Scotchman  Carlyle  with  his  constant  ramming  blows, 
to  burst  the  barriers  asunder. 


Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  (1772-1834) 

To  use  James  Stuart  Mill's  expression,  Coleridge  had  a 
"  seminal  mind."  His  genius  was  eminently  interpretative. 
He  would  no  doubt  have  referred  to  himself  with  that  newly- 
coined  term  of  his,  "  esemplastic,"  the  shaper-of-many-into- 
one.  Though  he  originated  nothing  new  in  the  domain 
of  criticism,  morality,  and  philosophy,  his  acute  and  sym- 
pathetic grasp  of  the  conceptions  of  more  systematic 
thinkers  made  him  an  excellent  bearer  of  German  thought 
to  England  and  America.  As  early  as  1794  he  had  read 
Schiller's  Rciuber  in  Lord  Woodhouselee's  translation,  and 
in  a  letter  to  his  brother-in-law  Southey  he  describes  the 
intense  excitement  aroused  in  him  by  the  work  of  "  this 
convulser  of  the  heart,"  Schiller.1  Soon  afterward  he 
writes  a  sonnet  "  To  the  Author  of  the  Robbers." 

"Schiller!  that  hour  I  would  have  wished  to  die, 
If  through  the  shudd'ring  midnight  I  had  sent 
From  the  dark  Dungeon  of  the  Tower  time-rent 
That  fearful  voice,  a  famished  Father's  cry — 
That  in  no  after  moment  aught  less  vast 
Might  stamp  me  mortal !     A  triumphant  shout 
Black  Horror  screamed,  and  all  her  goblin  rout, 
From  the  more  with'ring  scene  diminished  past. 
Ah !     Bard  tremendous  in  sublimity, 
Could  I  behold  thee  in  thy  loftier  mood 
Wand'ring  at  eve  with  finely  frenzied  eye 
Beneath  some  vast  old  tempest-swinging  wood! 
Awhile  with  mute  awe  gazing  I  would  brood, 
Then  weep  aloud  in  a  wild  ecstasy !  "  2 

1  Letters,  edited  by  E.  H.  Coleridge,  I,  pp.  96-97. 
3  Note  by  Coleridge :  "  One  night  in  winter  on  leaving  a  college 
friend's  room,  with  whom  I  had  supped,  I  carelessly  took  away 


152         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "De  l'Allemagne  " 

It  was  his  admiration  of  Schiller  that  probably  prompted 
him  to  begin  the  study  of  German.  In  May  1796  he  writes 
to  his  friend  Poole :  "  I  am  studying  German  and  in  about 
six  weeks  shall  be  able  to  read  that  language  with  tolerable 
fluency.  Now  I  have  some  thoughts  of  making  a  proposal 
to  Robinson,  the  great  London  bookseller,  of  translating 
all  the  works  of  Schiller,  which  would  make  a  portly 
quarto,  on  condition  that  he  should  pay  my  journey  and  my 
wife's  to  and  from  Jena,  a  cheap  German  university  town 
where  Schiller  resides,  and  allow  me  two  guineas  each 
quarto  sheet,  which  would  maintain  me.  If  I  could  realize 
this  scheme,  I  should  there  study  chemistry  and  anatomy 
and  bring  over  with  me  all  the  works  of  Semler  and 
Michaelis,  the  German  theologians,  and  of  Kant,  the  great 
German  metaphysician."  1 

This  plan  came,  however,  to  naught,  until  1798.  Then 
followed  a  literary  trip,2  which  included  a  visit  to  Klop- 
stock,  who  expressed  the  wish  that  Coleridge  would  "  ren- 
der into  English  some  select  passages  of  the  Messiah  and 
revenge  me  of  your  countrymen  " ;  the  study  of  Germanic 
literature  and  the  elder  poets ;  a  plan  to  write  Lessing's 
life  and  what  he  called  3  a  period  when  he  was  a  most  dili- 
gent worker,  when  the  evidence  of  those  who  knew  him 
there  pointed  to  his  being  an  idler  who  delighted  in  com- 
mitting  to   memory   an   ode  of   Klopstock — without   much 

with  me  The  Robbers,  a  drama,  the  very  name  of  which  I  had 
never  heard  before:  A  winter  midnight,  the  wind  high,  and  The 
Robbers  for  the  first  time !  The  readers  of  Schiller  will  conceive 
what  I  felt.  Schiller  introduces  no  supernatural  beings,  yet  his 
human  beings  agitate  and  astonish  more  than  all  the  goblin  rout 
of  Shakespeare."    Poems,  p.  63. 

1  Works,  edited  by  Shedd,  III,  pp.  638-39. 

2  See  Satyrane's  Letters,  Biographia  Literaria,  chaps,  x  arid  xxii. 
*  Works,  III,  p.  301. 


England  153 

understanding  of  it — and  thus  mystifying  his  countrymen 
with  his  rapid  progress  in  German.1 

Upon  his  return  to  England,  1799,  he  began  his  transla- 
tion of  Wallenstein,2  which,  according  to  Gillman,  he  fin- 
ished in  six  weeks.  As  it  was  made  from  a  manuscript 
copy,  it  differs  in  some  respects  from  the  standard  revised 
and  printed  edition.  In  his  translation  Coleridge  rambles 
and  amplifies  at  pleasure,  and  sometimes  by  imagery  makes 
a  passage  three  or  four  times  as  long  as  the  original.  For 
instance,  the  two  verses  in  Wallenstein  which  read : 


"  Die  alten  Fabelwesen  sind  nicht  mehr, 
Das  reizende  Geschlecht  ist  ausgewandert " 


become 


"  The  intelligible  forms  of  ancient  poets, 
The  fair  humanities  of  old  religion, 
The  Power,  the  Beauty,  and  the  Majesty, 
That  had  their  haunts  in  dale,  or  piny  mount, 
Or  forest,  by  slow  stream  or  pebbly  spring, 
Or  chasms  and  watery  depths ;  all  these  have  vanished — 
They  live  no  longer  in  the  faith  of  reason." 

From  a  few  friends,  Coleridge  received  the  praise  due 
his  excellent  work ;  but  the  Anti-Jacobin  press  of  the  day 
reviewed  it  so  severely  as  a  product  of  the  detestable  Ger- 
man school,  that  Coleridge  felt  it  was  necessary  to  explain 
his  literary  position.  In  a  letter  to  the  Monthly  Review, 
1800,3  he  is  at  pains  to  disclaim  German  partisanship. 
"  The  mere  circumstance  of  translating  a  manuscript  play 
is  not  even  evidence  that  I  admired  that  one  play,  much 
less  that  I  am  a  genuine  admirer  of  the  plays  in  that  lan- 
guage."    Not  until  after  the  appearance  of  De  I'Allemagne 

1  Calvert :  First  Years  in  Europe,  p.  104. 

2  Die  Piccolomini  and  Wallenstein  s  Tod. 
*  Review  for  October. 


154        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

and  of  Carlyle's  early  essays,  did  the  public  devote  any 
special  attention  to  this  masterpiece  of  poetic  translation, 
although,  excepting  Sotheby's  Oberon  (1798),  it  was,  as 
Carlyle  states,  "  the  best,  indeed,  the  only  sufferable  trans- 
lation from  the  German  with  which  our  literature  has  been 
enriched."  In  fact,  the  translation  was  considered  superior 
to  the  original,  and  by  such  literary  men  as  Scott,  Lamb, 
Southey,  and  Allan  Cunningham.  Even  that  excellent 
German  scholar,  James  F.  Clarke,  writes  in  the  preface 
to  his  Exotics:  "  Coleridge  in  Wallenstein  was  able  to  in- 
troduce Schiller  worthily  to  English  readers.  Some  pas- 
sages in  the  version  surpass  the  original.  I  think  there  is 
nothing  in  the  German  play  quite  so  good  as  those  lines  in 
which  Wallenstein  laments  the  death  of  Max,  which  close 
thus: 

" '  For  O,  he  stood  beside  me  like  my  youth, 
Transformed  for  me  the  Real  into  a  dream 
Clothing  the  palpable  and  the  familiar 
With  golden  exhalations  of  the  dawn. 
Whatever  fortunes  wait  my  future  toils, 
The  Beautiful  is  vanished  and  returns  not.' " 

In  the  remodeled  edition  of  the  Osorio  (written  at  first 
in  1797  under  the  combined  influence  of  the  Rauber  and 
Der  Geisterseher),  published  under  the  title  of  Remorse,  the 
influence  of  Wallenstein  is  very  apparent.  It  was  even 
commented  upon  by  the  reviewers.  The  London  Times  1 
refers  to  the  "  exploded  plagiarisms  from  the  German 
school,"  and  Leigh  Hunt  wrote  in  the  Examiner:2  "The 
skill,  indeed,  with  which  the  situations  are  disposed,  so 
as  to  create  effect,  would  have  done  honor  to  a  veteran 
dramatist ;  for  this,  we  suppose,  Mr.  Coleridge  is  indebted 
to  his  acquaintance  with  the  German  drama,  which  in  the 

1  Jan.  15,  1813. 

2  Jan.  31,  1813. 


England  155 

hands  of  Schiller  at  least  redeems  all  its  faults  by  its  ex- 
cellence ;  and  among  its  other  striking  beauties,  abounds 
in  the  picturesque." 

It  was  as  a  dramatist  rather  than  as  a  lyrist  that  Schiller 
appealed  to  Coleridge,  and  the  influence  of  Wallenstein  is 
also  reflected  in  Zapolya  (1817)  ;  yet  he  imitated  a  few  of 
Schiller's  lyrics.  His  Visit  of  the  Gods  was  an  acknowl- 
edged translation  of  Schiller's  Dithyrambe,  and  was  written, 
according  to  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  after  Nov.  15, 
1810/  though  Campbell  would  have  it  as  early  as  1799. 
Not  until  1840,  however,  was  it  discovered  that  Coleridge's 
beautiful  distiches  on  The  Homeric  Hexameter  and  The 
Ovidian  Elegiac  Metre  were  but  an  exact  translation  of 
Schiller's  verses.2 

From  more  obscure  poets  Coleridge's  borrowings  are 
numerous  and  generally  unacknowledged.  His  poem 
Hymn  Before  Sunrise  in  the  Vale  of  Chamouni  (1802)  is 
but  a  beautiful  expansion  of  Friederike  Brun's  Chamouni 
vor  Sonnenaufgang.  To  Matthisson's  poem  Milesisches 
Mdrchen,  written  in  a  Catullian  measure,  he  is  indebted 
for  his  Catullian  Hendecasyllables.  From  Count  Christian 
Stolberg  came  his  Tell's  Birthplace  (Tells  Geburtsort), 
The  British  Stripling's  War-Song  (Lied  eines  deutschen 
Knaben),  and  parts  of  the  Hymn  to  the  Earth  ( Hymne 
an  die  Erde),  Fancy  in  Nubibus  (An  das  Meer),  and 
On  a  Cataract  (Der  Felsen  Strom).  The  folksong,  Wenn 
ich  ein  Voglein  war' ,  becomes  through  Coleridge  a  poem 
of  longing  for  his  wife,  Something  Childish  but  Very 
Natural. 

"HI  had  but  two  little  wings, 
And  were  a  little  feathery  bird, 

*  Diary,  I,  p.  196. 

2  See  Ed.  R.,  LXVII,  pp.  287-99. 


156         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

To  you  I'd  fly,  my  dear: 
But  thoughts  like  these  are  idle  things 
And  I  stay  here." 

For  Goethe,  Coleridge  had  very  little  understanding. 
He  conceded  to  Goethe  universal  talent,  but  felt  a  want 
of  moral  life  to  be  the  defect  of  his  poetry.1  In  his  Table 
Talk,  Feb.  16,  1833,  Coleridge  says  that  before  he  had 
ever  seen  Goethe's  Faust  he  had  himself  planned  a  Faust 
tragedy,  the  hero  of  which  was  Michael  Scott.  Later, 
when  urged  to  translate  Goethe's  drama,  he  read  the  work 
carefully,  and  considered  whether  he  should  write  his  own 
drama  or  translate  Faust.  Says  the  dubious-minded 
expropriator:  "I  debated  with  myself  whether  it  became 
my  moral  character  to  render  into  English  and  so  far, 
certainly,  lend  my  countenance  to  language  much  of  which 
I  thought  vulgar,  licentious,  and  blasphemous.  I  need  not 
tell  you  that  I  never  put  pen  to  paper  as  a  translator  of 
Faust."  2  This  does  not  accord,  however,  with  his  letter 
to  John  Murray  from  Bristol,'  Aug.  23,  1814,  regarding  the 
translation  of  "  the  justly-celebrated  Faust  of  Goethe." 3 
Through  Charles  Lamb  he  had  heard  that  Murray  wished 
to  publish  such  a  translation  and  that  the  latter  considered 
him  well-fitted  for  the  task.  He  writes :  "  Among  the 
volumes  of  praiseworthy  German  poems,  the  Louise  of 
Voss  and  the  Faust  of  Goethe  are  the  two,  if  not  the  only 
ones,  that  are  emphatically  original  in  their  conception, 
and  their  character  is  of  a  new  and  peculiar  sort  of  think- 
ing and  imagination."  He  desires  to  have  all  of  Goethe's 
works   for   reading,   so  as   to   write   a   preliminary  critical 

1  H.  C.  R. :  Diary,  I,  p.  196. 

2  Edited  by  T.  Ashe,  London,  1896,  pp.  189-91,  193. 

8  Letters,    edited    by    Ernest    H.    Coleridge,    2   vols.,    Boston    and 
New  York,  1895,  II,  pp.  624-27. 


England  157 

essay,  for  Faust  may  not  suit  the  general  taste.  Men  of 
genius  will  admire  it,  of  necessity.  Those  must,  who  think 
deepest  and  most  imaginatively."  For  his  service  as  critic 
and  translator  he  desires  £100  and  agrees  to  complete  the 
work  in  two  or  three  months.  This  project,  like  many 
others,  came  to  naught. 

Whether  the  meter  of  Christabel  (a  verse  of  seven  to 
twelve  syllables  with  four  accents)  was  inspired  by  the 
measure  of  Faust  or  the  Knittelvcrs  of  Hans  Sachs,  whom 
he  studied  in  Germany,  is  still  an  open  question.  This 
poem  and  Kubla  Khan,  both  motivated  in  the  large  after 
Burger's  Lenore,  were  first  printed  in  1816,  but  in  prefatory 
notes  Coleridge  states  that  he  composed  Kubla  Khan  and 
Part  I  of  Christabel  in  1797,  Part  II  of  the  latter  in  the 
autumn  of  1800,  and  adds:  "The  dates  are  mentioned  for 
the  exclusive  purpose  of  precluding  charges  of  plagiarism 
or  servile  imitation  from  myself."  And  in  his  Tabic  Talk  x 
he  declares  that  he  had  conceived  the  whole  plan  of  his 
Christabel  from  its  first  inception,  that  the  execution  of 
his  idea  was  very  subtle  and  difficult,  and  that  his  reason 
for  not  finishing  was  because  he  had  heard  that  Part  II 
of  Faust  was  very  poor,  and  he  had  not  the  courage  to 
attempt  a  reversal  of  this  prejudice  against  continuations. 

In  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  April  1835 2  appears  an 
article  on  Coleridge's  Table  Talk,  which  contains  this 
criticism  of  Christabel:  "  But  the  original  of  this  form  of 
versification,  first  introduced  to  English  readers  by  that 
poem,  seems  a  little  more  questionable,  although  contended 
for  by  the  admirers  of  the  writer.  Whether  the  first  edi- 
tion of  Goethe's  Faust,  published  in  1790,  could  have  been 
known  to  the  author  of  Christabel  before  his  visit  to  Ger- 

1  July,  1833,  p.  241. 
1  LXI,  pp.  129-53- 


158         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

many  (the  first  part  having  been  written,  according  to 
himself,  in  1797),  we  do  not  know;  probably  the  forth- 
coming account  of  his  life  will  clear  up  all  doubts  on  that 
point.  If  not,  it  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  the  two 
writers  should  have  been  each  the  first  to  produce  in  his 
respective  country,  that  singular  meter  now  so  fashionable, 
in  which  the  verse  is  measured,  not  by  syllables,  but  by 
cadences,  and  that  both  should  have  applied  it  to  similar 
objects  of  wild,  unearthly  interest.  This  would  not  be 
the  only  unacknowledged  debt  due  from  Coleridge  to 
Goethe.  There  is  in  The  Friend  a  splendid  passage,  de- 
scribing the  temptations  of  Luther  in  his  cell  at  the  Wart- 
burg,  which  although  more  highly  wrought,  more  varied 
and  animated,  is  entirely  borrowed,  in  substance,  from  that 
scene  in  Faust  where  the  doctor  is  introduced,  laboring 
on  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament." 

Similarly  in  Blackwood's  Magazine,1  in  an  article  on 
Faust,  the  critic  writes :  "  Often,  while  engaged  in  our  pres- 
ent task,  we  have  thought  of  Kubla  Khan  and  Christabel." 
Then  after  quoting  the  Zueignung,  he  writes  in  a  note: 
"  Can  anything  be  more  divine  than  the  musical  versifica- 
tion of  these  passages?  And  surely  it  is  most  appropriate. 
We  could  easily  multiply  such  passages  from  Coleridge's 
works.     See  the  incantation  in  the  Remorse." 

As  Campbell  points  out,2  Coleridge's  Confessions  of  an 
Enquiring  Spirit,  a  series  of  seven  letters  on  Inspiration, 
owed  their  origin  to  Goethe's  Confessions  of  a  Fair  Saint 
in  Wilhelm  Meister.  These  Confessions  were  probably 
written  in  the  latter  part  of  1824,  though  not  published 
till  1840;  for  June  1824  Carlyle  gave  Coleridge  a  copy  of 
his  translation  of  Wilhelm  Meister,  and  Coleridge  declared 

1  VII,  pp.  236-58. 

2  Life  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  p.  254. 


England  159 

then  that  this  novel  was  his  favorite  among  Goethe's  prose 
works.1 

For  Goethe  the  lyrist,  Coleridge's  admiration  was  un- 
bounded. In  his  Table  Talk  2  he  writes :  "  In  his  ballads 
and  lighter  lyrics  Goethe  is  most  excellent.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  praise  him  too  highly  in  this  respect."  As  a  proof 
of  this  admiration,  we  have  Coleridge's  fine  version  of 
the  first  stanza  of  Mignon's  song. 

While  in  Ratzeburg  Coleridge  had  become  interested  in 
Lessing,  especially  in  his  Hamburgische  Dramaturgic  To 
him  Lessing  was  a  "  master  of  style."  In  his  Table  Talk  3 
he  declares  that  neither  Schiller's  nor  Goethe's  prose  style 
approaches  Lessing's,  whose  "  writings,  for  manner,  are 
absolute  perfection."  To  Lessing  was  due  Coleridge's 
first  recognition  of  Shakespeare's  greatness  as  a  dramatist. 
In  his  critique  on  Maturin's  tragedy  Bertram  in  the 
Biographia  Literaria  he  wrote :  "  It  was  Lessing  who  first 
introduced  the  name  and  the  works  of  Shakespeare  to  the 
admiration  of  the  Germans ;  and  I  should  not  perhaps  go 
too  far,  if  I  add,  that  it  was  Lessing  who  first  proved  to 
all  thinking  men,  even  to  Shakespeare's  own  countrymen, 
the  true  nature  of  his  apparent  regularities."  4  Later,  how- 
ever, he  ridiculed  Wordsworth  for  "  affirming  in  print  that 
a  German  critic  first  taught  us  to  think  correctly  concern- 
ing Shakespeare."  5 

This  newly  awakened  admiration  for  Shakespeare  was 
expressed  in  a  series  of  lectures  given  before  the  Royal 
Philosophical  Institute  at  London  in  the  spring  of  1808. 
Our  only  knowledge  of  their  content,  besides  Coleridge's 

1  Table  Talk,  p.  193,  Feb.  16,  1833. 

2  Feb.  16,  1833,  p.  193. 

3  P.  193- 

4  Works.  III.  p.  559. 

5  See  Morley's  edition  of  Wordsworth's  Works,  pp.  867-68. 


160         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

own  affirmations,  is  from  a  few  references  in  Henry 
Crabb  Robinson's  Diary  1  and  from  his  two  letters  to  Mrs. 
Clarkson.  According  to  Brandl,2  Robinson  affirms  that 
"  Coleridge's  lectures  adopted  in  all  respects  the  German 
doctrines,  clothed  with  original  illustrations  and  adapted 
to  an  English  audience." 

In  the  winter  of  1811-12  Coleridge  delivered  a  second 
course  of  seventeen  lectures.  From  the  notes  taken  by 
J.  Payne  Collier  3  and  also  from  his  diary  we  have  a  fair 
idea  of  their  content.  In  scope  and  character  of  criticism 
these  lectures  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  August  W. 
Schlegel's  Vorlesungen  iiber  dramatische  Kunst  und  Lite- 
ratur  which  he  delivered  in  Vienna  in  1808,  and  which 
were  afterwards  published  in  1809-11.  Coleridge's  lec- 
tures were  so  popular  that  soon  afterward  he  started  an- 
other course,  and  from  Robinson  comes  this  report  in  a 
letter  to  Mrs.  Clarkson,  dated  Nov.  29,  1811:4  "I  have 
not  missed  a  lecture,  and  have  each  time  left  the  room 
with  the  satisfaction  which  the  hearkening  to  the  display 
of  truth  in  a  beautiful  form  always  gives.  I  have  a  Ger- 
man friend  who  attends  also  and  who  is  delighted  to  find 
the  logic  and  the  rhetoric  of  his  country  delivered  in  a 
foreign  language.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Coleridge's 
mind  is  much  more  German  than  English.  My  friend  has 
pointed  out  striking  analogies  between  Coleridge  and 
German  authors  whom  Coleridge  has  never  seen." 

The  next  year  Coleridge  started  a  fourth  series,  and  in 
1813-14  repeated  his  lectures  of  1811-12  to  a  Bristol  audi- 
ence.    These  two  courses  are  embodied  in  a  long  series 

1  I,  p.  117,  and  II,  chap.  xii. 

2  Pp.  296-97. 

3  Pub.  1856. 

4  Diary,  I,  pp.  225-26. 


England  161 

of  fourteen  lectures  delivered  in  1818.  Miss  Anna  Helm- 
holtz  in  an  extended  investigation  on  this  subject  shows  by- 
parallel  citations  J  that  "  Coleridge,  despite  his  denial,  is  in- 
debted to  Schlegel  for  most  of  his  principles  of  criticism 
and  for  other  material  amounting  to  no  inconsiderable 
number  of  pages."  2 

Besides  his  obligations  to  Lessing  and  Schlegel,  Cole- 
ridge borrowed  many  of  the  philosophical  aesthetical  con- 
ceptions embodied  in  his  Biographic.  Literaria  from  Jean 
Paul  Richter,  Schiller,  Fichte,  Kant,  Schelling,  and  Maasz. 
Professor  James  F.  Ferrier  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of 
March  1840  R  declares  that  Coleridge  at  the  age  of  forty- 
five  succeeded  in  founding  his  great  metaphysical  reputa- 
tion upon  "  verbatim  plagiarisms  "  of  the  works  written 
by  a  German  youth  of  twenty.  By  parallel  citations  he 
shows  that  Coleridge  quoted  from  Schelling  thirteen  con- 
tinuous whole  pages,  six  half  pages,  and  twelve  small  pas- 
sages (about  three  pages),  or  nineteen  pages  in  all,  without 
any  acknowledgment  whatever,  and  that,  in  a  similar  way, 
he  gives  frequent  citations  from  Maasz.4  As  Ferrier 
points  out,  what  is  even  worse  than  unacknowledged 
plagiarism,  is  that  Coleridge  is  constantly  trying  to  ward  off. 
such  a  charge  by  prefixing  explanatory  notes  of  these 
"genial  coincidences"  of  thought  and  even  of  sameness  of 
phrase.  It  is  evident  that  one  of  his  fortes  was  to  concoct 
one  book  out  of  many  without  compunctions  as  to  ac- 
knowledgment of  debt. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  discuss  this  question  in  detail. 
Coleridge's  sin  was  one  of  frailty,  of  lack  of  will-power. 

1  Chap,  iii,  pp.  297-347. 

2  Pp.  361-62. 

3  XLVII,     pp.     287-99:     The     Plagiarisms     of     Samuel     Taylor 
Coleridge. 

4  Versuch  iiber  die  Einbildungskraft,  Halle  and  Leipzig,  1797. 


162         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

In  his  work  on  John  Sterling,  Carlyle  gives  a  very  graphic 
representation  x  of  Coleridge  as  he  shuffles  along,  stoop- 
ing, never  even  straightening  out  his  knees,  and  says: 
"  He  would  do  all  with  his  heart,  but  he  knows  he  dares 
not."  Even  while  in  Germany,  he  was  a  victim  of  the 
opium  habit,  though  some  critics,  Professor  Beers,  for 
one,  assert  he  started  it  in  1801  as  a  relief  from  rheuma- 
tism. Benecke,  however,  told  Calvert  that  his  practice  was 
so  well  known  in  Gottingen  that  when  De  Quincey's  Con- 
fessions of  an  Opium  Eater  appeared,  the  Germans  thought 
its  author  was  Coleridge.2  For  this  reason  we  should  par- 
don his  weakness,  and  be  grateful  to  Coleridge  for  his 
great  service  as  a  transmitter  of  German  thought  to  Eng- 
lish minds,  and  as  an  inspiring  and  suggestive  personality 
to  those  eager  students  of  German  culture,  among  whom 
may  be  numbered  our  early  American  leaders — Stuart, 
Marsh,  Calvert,  Clarke,  Emerson,  Theodore  Parker,  and 
Margaret  Fuller.3 

Sir  Walter  Scott  (1771-1832) 

Gillies  says   in  his  Memories   of  a  Literary   Veteran: 4 

'  If  Scott  had  not  chanced  to  have  a  few  German  lessons 

and  Lenore  and  the  Wild  Huntsman  as  exercises,  we  should 

never  have  had  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  and  the  Lady 

of  the  Lake." 

1  Chap,  viii,  p.  260. 

2  First  Years  in  Europe,  p.  104. 

3  Cf.  E.  E.  Hale,  Life  of  J.  F.  Clarke,  p.  87 :  "  The  great  German 
authors  swayed  the  minds  of  our  young  students  with  all  their 
new  power,  and  with  the  special  seduction  which  accompanies  a 
discovery,  the  study  of  German  being  wholly  new.  For  students 
who  did  not  read  German,  Coleridge  was  opening  up  the  larger 
philosophy." 

4 1,  p.  227. 


England  163 

Scott's  first  interest  in  German  thought  dates  from  1788. 
In  that  year  William  Mackenzie  delivered  a  lecture  on 
German  literature  in  Edinburgh.  Among  his  auditors  was 
Scott,  who  then  determined  to  study  the  German  language. 
With  six  other  young  people  he  had  lessons  under  a  Dr. 
Willich,  and  with  his  teacher  read  Gessner's  Tod  Abels. 
Then  came  the  independent  reading  of  Schiller's  and 
of  Goethe's  dramas,  especially  of  Die  R'duber. 

In  the  autumn  of  1794  Mrs.  Barbauld,  a  friend  of  the 
Norwich  Taylors,  came  to  Edinburgh  and  recited  Burger's 
Lenore  in  William  Taylor's  version.     Its 

'  Tramp,  tramp,  across  the  land  they  speed, 
Splash,  splash,  across  the  sea !  " 

inspired  Scott  to  try  his  skill  at  a  poetical  translation. 
Under  the  title  of  William  and  Helen,  this  poem  was  pub- 
lished in  1796,  together  with  The  Chase,  a  recasting  of 
Der  wilde  Jiiger.  This  was  the  turning-point  in  Scott's 
career,  as  he  later  declared.  A  letter  of  Mrs.  Barbauld's 
to  William  Taylor  also  substantiates  this  fact.  She  wrote : 
'  Do  you  know  that  you  made  Walter  Scott  a  poet  ?  So 
he  told  me  the  other  day.  It  was,  he  says,  your  ballad  of 
Lenore  that  inspired  him."  x 

Besides  these  translations  from  Burger,  traces  of  the 
German  poet's  influence  are  discernible  in  Eve  of  St.  John 
(printed  i8or  in  Lewis's  Talcs  of  Wonder,  and  in  the  Lay 
of  the  Last  Minstrel,  1805).  The  great  success  of  the  Lay 
was  due  in  part  to  the  meter  in  which  it  was  written — the 
four-beat  couplet  (Knittelvers) .  In  Kubla  Khan  and 
Christabel  (written  1797)  Coleridge  had  been  the  first 
Englishman  to  use  the  old  German  meter,  but  inasmuch 
as  these  poems  were  not  printed  until  1816,  Scott  did  not 

1  Janet  Ross,  p.  2. 


164         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

have  direct  access  to  them.  Sir  John  Stoddart,  however, 
had  seen  Coleridge  in  Malta  in  1804,  and  had  heard  the 
poem  recited.  From  his  description  Scott  derived  the  idea 
of  his  rhythm.  A  proof  of  this  is  the  line  he  borrowed 
from  Christabel — "  Jesu  Maria  shield  thee  well  " — and  also 
several  rhythmic  forms.1 

In  spite  of  his  scanty  knowledge  of  German,  Scott  began 
the  translation  of  Goethe's  drama,  Gbtz  von  Berlichingen, 
in  1798  and  finished  it  the  following  year.  The  work  at- 
tracted little  attention  among  the  public,  yet  for  Scott's 
own  literary  development  it  was  of  the  greatest  importance. 
Its  influence  is  very  apparent  on  the  Lay  (1805),2  Marmion 
(begun  1806,  printed  1808),  and  on  his  first  original  drama, 
the  House  of  Aspen  (written  1800,  published  1829).  Just 
as  Byron  became  the  representative  of  Wertherism  in 
England,  in  his  poems  and  dramas,  so  Scott  became  the 
exponent  of  Gotzism,  not  only  in  his  ballads  but  in 
that  field  so  peculiarly  his  own — the  novel  of  romantic 
chivalry.3 

Waverley,  his  first  great  novel,  was  begun  in  1805,  but 
upon  the  advice  of  a  friend  who  considered  the  fragment 
inferior  to  the  Lay,   Scott  laid  aside  the  manuscript,  and 

1  Cf.  Tieck's  remark  to  Mrs.  Jameson  :  "  Walter  Scott  and  Lord 
Byron  borrowed  the  first  idea  of  the  form  and  spirit  of  their 
narrative  poems  from  Coleridge's  Christabel."  A  Commonplace 
Book  of  Thoughts,  Memories,  and  Fancies,  London,  1855,  PP-  71-72- 

■  Cf .  Wm.  Taylor  of  Norwich :  Historic  Survey,  III,  p.  333. 

3  Cf.  Gesammelte  Schriften  von  J.  M.  R.  Lenz,  hrsg.  von  L. 
Tieck,  Berlin,  1828,  I,  Introduction,  Ixxvi  ff. ;  also  Nachschrift. 
CXXV.  Cf.  Blackwood,  XV,  p.  622,  June,  1824:  "In  the  poetical 
revival  of  Gothic  antiquity  .  .  .  Goethe's  example  inspired  the 
youthful  genius  of  the  great  poet  of  Scotland."  Cf.  N.  Y.  Rev., 
V,  p.  11,  July,  1839.  The  translation  of  Gbtz  was  "the  first  literary 
labor  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  of  which  the  brilliant  and  at  the 
same  time  entirely  original  pictures  of  feudal  chivalry  probably 
contributed  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Waverley  novels." 


England  165 

did  not  resume  work  on  it  until  nine  years  later.  In  1814 
it  was  published  anonymously,  and  its  great  success  de- 
cided the  future  career  of  the  Scotchman.  He  determined 
to  gain  eminence  as  a  novelist,  for  he  could  no  longer 
hope  to  compete  with  Lord  Byron  in  poetic  creations. 
Of  this  novel  Goethe  later  said  to  Eckermann : *  "  Waverley 
may  be  set  beside  the  best  works  that  have  ever  been 
written  in  this  world  ...  in  that  first  published  novel, 
Scott  showed  what  he  could  do,  and  has  never  since  sur- 
passed, or  even  equaled  it." 

In  addition  to  the  appearance  of  De  V Allemagne  in  1813, 
another  event  was  very  potent  in  strengthening  Scott's 
interest  in  German  literature.  This  was  his  association  with 
his  son-in-law  J.  G.  Lockhart,  who  had  been  in  Europe 
in  181 7  and  visited  Goethe  in  Weimar.2  In  a  long  letter 
to  Goethe,  July  9,  1827,  Scott  refers  to  this  renewed  in- 
terest 3  in  very  cordial  terms. 

In  Scott's  novels  may  be  noted  many  motives  from  his 
German  reading.  The  siege  in  Ivanhoe  (1820)  and  the 
secret  tribunal  in  Anne  of  Geierstein  (1829)  are  remi- 
niscences of  his  Gots  translation.4  The  character  of 
Fenella,  in  Peveril  of  the  Peak  (1822),  is  copied,  accord- 
ing to  the  author's  own  introduction,  after  Mignon,  "  from 
an  author,  the  honor  of  his  own  country  and  an  example 
to  the  authors  of  other  kingdoms,  to  whom  all  must  be 
proud  to  own  an  obligation."  5    Likewise  the  figure  of  the  old 

1  Oct.  9,  1828. 

2  This  trip  was  due  to  the  kindness  of  the  publisher,  Blackwood, 
who  had  advanced  Lockhart  the  money  for  a  promised  translation 
of  Schlegel's  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Literature,  which  did  not, 
however,  appear  in  print  until  1838. 

8  Eckermann,  July  25,  1827. 
4  See  Eckermann,  Mar.   11,  1831,  on  Ivanhoe. 

*  See  review  by  Dr.  F.  H.  Hedge :  Prose  Writers  of  Germany, 
2nd  ed.,  Philadelphia,  1849,  p.  290  ff. 


166        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

harper  in  the  Lay  seems  to  be  a  suggestion  from  the  same 
German  novel. 

In  Kenilworth  (1821)  is  found  a  motive  from  Egmont. 
The  scene  in  which  Earl  Leicester,  clad  in  his  magnificent 
court  costume,  visits  his  wife,  Amy  Robsart,  calls  to 
mind  Egmont's  visit  to  Klarchen.  This  loan  was  praised 
by  Goethe  "  for  the  judicious  manner  in  which  he  did  it,"  * 
although  he  disapproved  of  Scott's  manipulation  of  Mignon.2 
Scott's  drama  also  shows  his  study  of  Schiller.  The  scene 
in  which  Leicester  inquires  from  his  astrologer,  Alasco, 
the  portent  of  the  stars  for  the  future,  is  founded  on  a  sim- 
ilar scene  between  Wallenstein  and  Seni.3 

In  The  Characters  of  Schiller*  Mrs.  Ellet  points  out 
the  similarities  between  Louis  XL  in  Quentin  Durward 
(1823)  and  Wallenstein.  Like  Wallenstein,  Louis  has  a 
profound  knowledge  of  men  and  penetration  into  indi- 
vidual character.  His  confidence  in  the  honor  and  in- 
tegrity of  others  makes  him  venture  into  the  power  of  his 
bitter  enemy,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.5  A  dissembler,  nat- 
urally cruel  and  vindictive,  his  excessive  superiority 
seemed  the  result  of  education  rather  than  of  nature,  and 
a  compound  of  credulity  and  skepticism.  His  reasons  for 
trusting  the  unknown  Scottish  youth  resemble  Wallenstein's 
source  of  confidence  in  Octavio.  Just  as  Wallenstein  re- 
lates to  Illo  and  Terzky  his  peculiar  vision  before  the  bat- 
tle of  Liitzen  and  how  Octavio  saved  his  life,  so  Louis 
relates  to  Oliver  his  vision  of  Saint  Julian  presenting  the 
youth  to  him,  and  says  that  their  destinies  are  guarded 
by  the  same  planet.     Each   fancies  he  has  a  pledge   from 

1  Eckermann,  Jan.  18,  1825. 

2  Jan.  31,  1827. 

8  Wallenstcins  Tod,  act  i,  scene  i. 

4  Boston,  1839,  pp.  142-45. 

6  Cf.  also  Egmont  and  the  Duke  of  Alba. 


England  167 

fate.  The  artful  appeal  of  King  Louis  to  the  wounded 
pride  of  Philip  des  Comines,  when  he  reminds  the  knight 
of  the  slander  he  has  received  from  Charles  of  Burgundy, 
resembles  Octavio's  speech  to  Buttler,  whom  Wallenstein 
has  secretly  injured. 

Whether  Goethe's  Faust  made  a  deep  impression  on 
Scott  is  very  uncertain.  In  the  autumn  of  1818  he  is  said 
to  have  read  it  for  the  first  time  at  Abbotsford.  Accord- 
ing to  Lockhart  "  he  was  full  of  the  poem,  dwelt  with  en- 
thusiasm on  the  airy  beauty  of  its  lyrics,  the  terrible  pathos 
of  the  scene  before  the  Mater  Dolorosa,  and  the  deep  skill 
shown  in  the  various  subtle  shadings  of  character  between 
Mephistopheles  and  poor  Margaret  " ; 1  but  later  when  he 
heard  that  Coleridge  intended  to  translate  the  drama,  he 
said :  "  I  hope  it  is  so ;  Coleridge  made  Schiller's  Wallen- 
stein far  finer  than  he  found  it.  and  so  he  will  do  by  this,"  2 
a  remark  that  shows  his  lack  of  comprehension  of  the 
true  meaning  of  Faust.  In  the  Lay,  however,  occurs  a 
stanza  which  shows  that  Scott  must  have  had  an  earlier 
acquaintance  with  the  poem. 

"  And  ever  in  the  office  close 
The  hymn  of  intercession  rose : 
And  far  the  echoing  aisles  prolong 
The  awful  burthen  of  the  song — 
Dies  irae,  Dies  ilia, 
Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla — 
While  the  pealing  organ  rung."  s 

In  the  introduction  to  Peveril  of  the  Peak*  we  have  a 

public   recognition   of    Goethe's   genius,   and    in   his   diary, 

Feb.    20,    1827,    Scott    wrote:    "Goethe    is    a    wonderful 

fellow,  the  Aristotle  at  once,  and  almost  the  Voltaire,  of 

1 IV,  pp.  192  ff. 

2  Lockhart,  IV,  p.  193. 

8  Stanza  30  of  the  last  canto.     Cf.  Domscene  in  Faust. 

4  See  also  letter  to  Goethe,  Eckermann,  July  25,  1827. 


168        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Germany.  Who  could  have  told  me  thirty  years  ago  that 
I  should  correspond  and  be  on  something  like  an  equal 
footing  with  the  author  of  the  G'dtz?  "  1 

And  what  was  Goethe's  opinion  of  the  English  novelist? 
To  Eckermann  he  said,  March  8,  1831  :  "Walter  Scott  is 
a  great  genius ;  he  has  not  his  equal ;  and  we  need  not 
wonder  at  the  extraordinary  effect  he  has  produced  on  the 
reading  world.  He  gives  me  much  to  think  of ;  and  I  dis- 
cover in  him  a  wholly  new  art,  with  laws  of  its  own.  .  .  . 
His  scenes  and  situations  remind  me  of  the  pictures  of 
Teniers ;  in  plan  they  show  the  height  of  art.  Individual 
figures  have  a  speaking  truth  and  the  fine  details  show  the 
pervading  love  of  the  artist  for  his  work."  2 

Just  as  Byron  exerted  great  influence  upon  the  younger 
writers  of  Europe,  so  did  Walter  Scott.  In  Germany  this 
influence  showed  itself  in  historical  fiction,  especially  in 
the  novels  of  Wilhelm  Hauff  and  Willibald  Alexis,  who 
even  went  so  far  as  to  pass  off  his  imitations  as  genuine 
translations  of  the  Waverley  novels.  In  France  Scott's 
novels  were  at  once  translated,  and  became  of  great  im- 
portance in  creating  a  love  of  local  color  and  of  dramatic 
action  and  in  introducing  a  semblance  of  historic  reality. 
In  these  qualities  Scott  was  but  the  mediator  between  the 
French  and  Goethe,  for  it  was  from  G'dtz  he  had  learned 
his  secret. 

Thomas  de  Quincey   (1785-1859) 

Whether  De  Quincey  has  exerted  a  great  positive  influ- 
ence in  the  extension  of  German  literature  and  philosophy 

1  Cf.  Lockhart,  VII,  p.  26. 

2  Oct.  3,  1828.  Cf.  also  Eckermann,  Oct.  3,  1828,  and  Jan.  22, 
1830 ;  also  Goethe's  review  on  Scott's  Life  of  Napoleon,  9  vols., 
1827,  in  Kunst  und  Altertum,  Nov.,  1827;  also  his  letter  to  Scott, 
Jan.  12,  1827. 


England  169 

is  still  a  question,  but  because  of  his  great  renown  as  a 
literary  critic  and  essayist,  because  of  his  many  articles 
on  German  literature,  interspersed  with  translations,1  he 
deserves  recognition  in  this  connection.  That  Mme.  de 
StaeTs  De  VAllemagne  was  a  probable  agent  in  stimulating 
this  literary  criticism  in  essay  form  seems  probable,  inas- 
much as  his  first  essay  on  German  literature  did  not  appear 
until  1821.  Walter  Durand  in  an  article  on  De  Quincey  and 
Carlyle  in  their  Relation  to  the  Germans 2  points  out  the 
similarity  of  his  style  to  Mme.  de  StaeTs.  He  says : 
"  Finally  De  Quincey  has  a  way  of  using  his  general  ideas 
on  Germany  and  the  Germans  in  contrast  with  France, 
and  with  England.  Frequently  in  his  essays  not  dealing 
with  a  subject  which  is  especially  German,  as  in  the  Essay 
on  Style,  or  in  the  Letter  to  a  Young  Man  whose  Education 
has  been  Neglected,  he  will  contrast  German  and  French 
style,  German  and  French  manners,  or  the  social  life  and 
conversational  habits ;  all  this  a  good  deal  after  the  model 
of  Mme.  de  Stael." 

In  1802,  during  his  wanderings  in  Wales,  De  Quincey 
first  made  the  acquaintance  of  German  works.  From  that 
time  on  until  181 2  he  read  German  literature  and  philos- 
ophy, especially  Kant,  Schiller,  and  Jean  Paul.  For  the 
positive,  constructive  character  of  Kant's  metaphysics,  De 
Quincey  had  little  comprehension,  as  his  eight  essays  on 
that  philosopher  prove.  Similarly  he  did  not  understand 
the  real  significance  of  Schiller's  work,  and  his  criticism 
of  "  the  moral  king  of  authors  "  was  largely  influenced 
by  his  admiration  of  the  man  and  of  the  Miltonic  sublimity 

'He  wrote  29  essays  in  all:  Kant,  8;  Schiller,  1;  Goethe,  2; 
Lessing,  1;  Herder,  1;  German  romance,  10 ;  Richter,  3;  Miscel- 
laneous, 3. 

2  Publications  of  the  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n,  XXII,  pp.  5^i\30,  Sept., 
1907. 


170        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

of  his  style.  De  Quincey  devotes  a  great  part  of  his  essay 
on  Schiller  1  to  a  sketch  of  German  literature  and  to  the 
details  of  the  poet's  life.  But  little  criticism  of  his  works 
is  offered  and  that  very  general.  For  England  Schiller 
is  the  "  representative  of  the  German  intellect  in  its  highest 
form  " ;  he  stands  "  at  the  head  of  Trans-Rhenish  litera- 
ture "  and  is  renowned  as  a  "  great  scenical  poet." 

In  Jean  Paul  Richter  De  Quincey  found  a  more  con- 
genial writer  and  companion.  In  fact,  he  was  so  much 
like  the  German  in  taste,  temperament,  and  dreamy 
phantasy,  that  even  the  English  critics  declared  his  style 
was  an  imitation  of  Jean  Paul's.  His  admiration  he  com- 
municated to  Carlyle,  who  was  thus  induced  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  German  humorist  and  acquire  much 
of  his  stylistic  peculiarities. 

In  regard  to  Goethe  De  Ouincey's  knowledge  was  very 
superficial  and  biased.  Instead  of  studying  German  works 
at  first  hand  he  often  relied  on  English  reviews  and  trans- 
lations. To  him  Goethe  was  merely  a  "  Glitckskind,"  a 
professional  poet,  immoral  and  irreligious.  He  says : 
"  Goethe  was  not  that  religious  creature  which  by  nature 
he  was  intended  to  become  ...  he  had  so  far  corrupted 
and  clouded  his  natural  mind  that  he  did  not  look  up  to 
God  with  the  interest  of  reverence  and  awe,  but  with  the 
interest  of  curiosity."  2  The  reasons  for  his  own  interest  in 
the  German  poet  are  threefold,  he  says.  Goethe  had  been 
the  patriarch  of  German  literature  for  twenty  years ;  as 
friend  and  minister  of  the  duke,  he  occupied  a  high  official 
position ;  then  because  of  "  the  quantity  of  enigmatical  and 
unintelligible  writing  which  he  has  designedly  thrown  into 
his  later  works  by  way  of  keeping  up  a  system  of  discus- 

1  Biog.  Essays,  X,  pp.  263-86,  Works,  Boston,  1853. 

2  Ibid.,  X,  pp.  225-61. 


England  171 

sion  and  strife  upon  his  own  meaning  amongst  the  critics  of 
his  country,"  so  "  that  his  name  should  continue  to  agitate 
the  world."  He  dismisses  Faust  with  a  paragraph,  which 
reads  thus :  "  The  luster  of  all  these  performances,  how- 
ever, is  eclipsed  by  the  unrivaled  celebrity  amongst  Ger- 
man critics  of  the  Faust.  Upon  this  it  is  better  to  say 
nothing  than  too  little.  How  trifling  an  advance  has  been 
made  towards  clearing  the  ground  for  any  sane  criticism, 
may  be  understood  from  this  fact,  that -as  yet  no  two  people 
have  agreed  about  the  meaning  of  any  separate  scene,  or 
about  the  drift  of  the  whole."  He  concludes  his  shallow 
remarks  by  prophesying  "  that  the  reputation  of  Goethe 
must  decline  for  the  next  generation  or  two,  until  it  reaches 
its  just  level." 

It  is  possible  that  by  his  numerous  essays  De  Ouincey 
did  stimulate  a  curiosity  and  interest  in  German  literature 
among  those  who  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the  subject. 
Among  men  versed  in  German  thought,  however,  his 
superficial  criticism  had  very  little  weight.  Even  his  friend 
Carlyle  refers  to  him  as  one  who  "  passes  for  a  mighty 
seer  in  such  things,"  and  yet  is  but  a  "  poor  little  fellow." 
Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  that  modest  connoisseur  of  Ger- 
man thought,  in  his  diary  rarely  mentions  his  friend's 
opinions.  Once,  in  noting  De  Ouincey's  pamphlet  against 
Lord  Brougham,  he  records  this  characteristic  entry, 
Oct.  7,  1821:1  "All  that  De  Ouincey  wrote  or  writes, 
is  curious,  if  not  valuable."  As  a  stimulator  of  curiosity 
and  an  elegant  rhetorician  in  the  Jean  Paul  style,  De 
Quincey  will  be  remembered  in  this  German  cultural 
movement. 

1  Diary,  I,  p.  465,  edition  1880. 


172         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Robert  Pearse  Gillies  (1788-1858) 

A  most  zealous  worker  in  the  cause  of  German  litera- 
ture was  the  Scotch  barrister,  Robert  Pearse  Gillies,  the 
nephew  of  John  Gillies,  the  renowned  classical  scholar, 
who  was  the  first  Briton  to  write  a  history  of  Frederick 
the  Great.1  In  his  Memoirs  of  a  Literary  Veteran,2  the 
younger  Gillies  gives  an  interesting  picture  of  the  literary 
conditions  of  his  day  and  of  his  efforts  in  the  diffusion  of 
German  thought.  In  speaking  of  the  slavish  thralldom  to 
French  tradition,  he  writes :  "  I  wished  moreover  to  claim 
for  the  Germans  the  palm  they  so  justly  deserve  for  hav- 
ing been  the  first  to  fling  off  the  yoke  of  conventionalism 
and  to  establish  an  example  for  other  nations."  3 

In  1801  Gillies  went  to  Edinburgh  to  study  for  matricu- 
lation at  the  University,  and  there  he  came  into  contact 
with  a  small  circle  of  young  people  interested  in  foreign 
literature,  especially  in  the  German.  Among  them  were 
Dugald  Stewart,  Mackenzie,  Walter  Scott,  Jeffrey,  James 
Hogg,  John  Wilson,  Dr.  Brown,  the  Ballantynes,  and 
Thomas  Carlyle.  Just  when  the  turning-point  in  Gillies's 
literary  activity  came  was  uncertain  even  to  Gillies  him- 
self, for  he  says:  "  Before  the  year  1816  was  done,  I  had 
begun  my  gropings  in  the  dark  after  foreign  literature, 
having,  I  know  not  how  (unless  it  were  by  some  hints  from 
Sir  Walter  Scott),  got  a  notion  that  the  German  language 
concealed  from  us  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  the  richest 
ore."  4 

In  the  winter  of   1815-16  Gillies's  interest  was   kindled 

1 A  View  of  the  Reign  of  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia,  with  a  Parallel 
between  that  Prince  and  Philip  II.  of  Macedon;  London,  1789. 
2  3  vols.,  London,  1851. 
3 1,  p.  225. 
4  II,  p.  217. 


England  173 

into  flame  by  De  Ouincey's  visit  at  the  Wilsons',  when  their 
friendship  began.  The  description  of  De  Ouincey  and  of 
the  sensation  he  produced  in  Edinburgh  is  so  vividly  given 
by  Gillies  -that  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  it  in  full : 
"  His  voice  was  extraordinary ;  it  came  as  if  from  dream- 
land;  but  it  was  the  most  musical  and  impressive  of  voices. 
In  convivial  life,  what  then  seemed  to  me  the  most  re- 
markable trait  of  De  Quincey's  character  was  the  power  he 
possessed  of  easily  changing  the  tone  of  ordinary  thought 
and  conversation  into  that  of  his  own  dreamland,  till  his 
auditors,  with  wonder,  found  themselves  moving  pleas- 
antly along  with  him  in  a  sphere  of  which  they  might  have 
heard  and  read,  perhaps,  but  which  had  ever  appeared  to 
them  inaccessible,  and  far,  far  away !  As  he  was  always 
good-natured  and  social,  he  would  take  part,  at  commence- 
ment, in  any  sort  of  tattle  or  twaddle.  The  talk  might  be 
of  '  beeves,'  and  he  could  grapple  with  them,  if  expected 
to  do  so,  but  his  musical  cadences  were  not  in  keeping 
with  such  work,  and  in  a  few  minutes  (not  without  some 
strictly  logical  sequence)  he  could  escape  at  will  from 
beeves  to  butterflies,  and  thence  to  the  soul's  immortality, 
to  Milton,  to  Plato  and  Kant  and  Schelling  and  Fichte,  to 
Milton's  early  years  and  Shakespeare's  sonnets,  to  Words- 
worth and  Coleridge,  to  Homer  and  iEschylus,  to  St. 
Thomas  of  Aquin,  St.  Basil,  and  St.  Chrysostom.  But  he 
by  no  means  excluded  themes  from  real  life,  according  to 
his  own  views  of  that  life,  but  would  recount  profound 
mysteries  of  his  own  experience — visions  that  had  come 
over  him  in  his  loneliest  walks  among  the  mountains,  and 
passages  within  his  own  personal  knowledge,  illustrating, 
if  not  proving,  the  doctrines  of  dreams,  of  warnings,  of 
second  sight  and  mesmerism.  And  whatsoever  the  subject 
might  be,  every  one  of  his  sentences  (or  of  his  chapters  I 


174         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

might  say)  was  woven  into  the  most  perfect  logical  texture 
and  uttered  in  a  tone  of  sustained  melody. 

"  Such  powers  and  acquirements  could  not  fail  to  excite 
wonder  at  Edinburgh.  He  had,  indeed,  studied  '  all  such 
books  as  are  never  read  '  in  that  enlightened  capital,  and 
was  the  first  friend  I  had  ever  met  who  could  profess  to 
have  a  command  over  the  German  language,  and  who  con- 
sequently was  able  (ex  cathedra)  to  corroborate  my  no- 
tions of  the  great  stories  that  were  contained  therein."  1 

To  Walter  Scott  and  to  De  Ouincey  probably  belongs  the 
credit  of  inspiring  in  Gillies  an  interest  in  German  litera- 
ture. In  his  early  life  Gillies  was  more  fortunate  than 
Carlyle  in  not  being  hampered  by  poverty.  He  had  a  fine 
library  and  indulged  his  mania  for  collecting  old  and  rare 
books  and  buying  foreign  ones.  He  was  also  generous  in 
lending  them  to  others  less  fortunate.  When  Carlyle  was 
preparing  his  proposed  History  of  German  Literature, 
Gillies  not  only  lent  him  books  but  even  related  his  own 
experiences  in  Germany,  many  of  which,  according  to 
Kraeger,2  were  utilized  in  Sartor  Resartus. 

It  was  in  order  to  perfect  himself  in  German  and  to  be- 
come more  efficient  as  a  translator,  that  Gillies  went  to 
Germany  in  182 1.  As  his  aim  was  to  gain  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  German  language,"  he  remained  most  of 
the  time  in  Frankfurt-am-Main,  where  he  could  have  the 
services  of  the  famous  linguist,  Dr.  C.  F.  Becker  of  Offen- 
bach. Here  he  made  an  entire  transcript  of  Dr.  Becker's 
German  Grammar  for  English  students,  which  was  later 
published  in  London  by  Murray,  and  when  he  returned 
to    Edinburgh    he    could    say    that    "  as    a    translator    and 

1 II,  pp.  220-21. 

2  Carlyles  Stellimg  zur  deutschen  Sprache  und  Litteratur,  p.  14. 
8  Memories,  II,  p.  29. 


England  175 

adapter  of  German  literature  he  had  scarcely  one  com- 
petitor to  contest  the  field."  x 

Before  leaving  Germany,  Gillies  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  Tieck  and  Goethe,2  and  his  interview  with  these 
great  writers  further  strengthened  his  interest  in  German 
literature. 

After  his  return  Gillies  became  a  regular  contributor  to 
Blackivood's,  furnishing  a  series  of  articles  with  transla- 
tions from  German  and  Danish  literature.  Of  these  series, 
called  Horce  Germanico?  and  Horce  Danicce,  he  writes : 
:'  From  its  commencement  up  to  the  year  1827,  the  chapters 
were  all  mine,  with  the  exception  of  two,  namely,  on 
Goethe's  Faust  and  on  a  tragedy  of  La  Motte  Fouque."  3 

In  the  Horce  Ger  manic  ce  from  November  18 19  to  Septem- 
ber 1827  appear  twenty-four  articles  with  translations,  dis- 
cussing works  by  the  following  German  writers :  Miillner, 
Grillparzer,  Fouque,  Goethe,  Korner,  Raupach,  Schlen- 
kert,  Houwald,  Klingemann,  Schiller,  Lessing,  Wieland, 
Uhland,  and  Werner.  Of  the  four  numbers  of  Horce 
Danker  three  treated  Oehlenschlager  and  the  fourth  Inge- 
mann.  This  enumeration  of  names  gives  but  a  faint  idea 
of  German  literature.  He  says :  "  For  my  own  part, 
•feeling  that  when  I  translated  any  one  of  them,  fifty  more 
equally  interesting  were  awaiting  the  same  process,  I 
looked  upon  the  printed  fragments  only  as  stepping-stones 
to  the  deeper  mines  of  German  literature."  4 

Concerning  Gillies's  great  skill  in  translation,  I  quote  a 
note  appended  by  the  editor  of  Blackwood's  to  the  first 
number  of   the  Horce  Germanicce,  a   review  of   Milliner's 

1  Memories,  II,  p.  44. 

2  June  21,  1821. 
"Memories.  II.  pp.  263-64. 
'Ibid.,  II,  p.  265. 


176        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Schuld: 1  "  Our  readers  may  rest  assured  that  the  transla- 
tion is  executed  with  astonishing  closeness  to  the  original." 

In  addition  to  these  two  series  Gillies  published  during 
this  same  period  several  original  works  and  three  volumes 
of  translations  from  the  German,  entitled  German  Stories 
(1826).  In  the  introduction  Gillies  says  "that  they  form 
but  a  small  portion  of  a  series,  long  since  accumulated  on 
the  Translator's  shelves,  from  which  specimens  (mostly  in 
verse)  appeared  occasionally  in  Blackwood's  Magazine, 
and  that  they  are  now  printed  in  consequence  of  that  in- 
creasing interest  which  seems  lately  to  have  been  excited 
in  favor  of  German  stories." 

Financial  difficulties  obliged  him  to  escape  in  1840  to 
Eoulogne.  France.  There  he  sought  consolation  in  work- 
ing over  Kant.  "  Whilst  in  France,"  he  wrote  later,  "  I  had 
translated  Kant's  Critique  three  times  over,  and  written 
an  original  commentary,  without  considering  whether  my 
labors  would  ever  bring  sixpence  of  pecuniary  remunera- 
tion, though  I  intended  that  my  work  should  one  day  be 
published,  either  at  the  author's  risk  or  by  subscription. 
It  was  therefore  a  matter  of  agreeable  surprise  to  hear,  by 
the  merest  accident,  that  a  new  translation  of  this  mis- 
understood and  maltreated  work  was  actually  wanted  and 
wished  for ;  still  more,  that  a  respectable  sum  would  be 
paid  for  my  translation,  provided  I  would  finally  revise  it 
for  the  press,  condensing,  if  possible,  the  commentary  into 
such  narrow  limits  that  the  whole  might  be  comprised 
within  one  closely-written  volume." 2  To  see  about  the 
revision  of  the  work  and  attend  to  the  necessary  business 
transaction,  Gillies  unwisely  returned  to  London  in  1847 
and  was  at  once  sent  to  prison  on  the  old  charge  of  debt. 

1  VI,  pp.  121-36,  Nov.,  1819. 

2  Memories,  III,  pp.  304-05. 


England  177 

We  have  no  knowledge  of  the  fate  of  this  Kant  manu- 
script. While  in  prison  he  wrote  his  Memories,1  which 
give  not  only  an  account  of  his  own  life  up  to  1849,  Dut 
also  sketches  and  anecdotes  of  the  most  distinguished 
writers  of  his  day,  presenting  a  vivid  picture  of  the  social, 
literary,  and  political  conditions  of  what  he  calls  the  Era 
of  Shadozvism,  and  showing  at  the  same  time  his  work 
and  influence  in  creating  a  sentiment  for  German  culture 
and  in  preparing  the  way  for  his  countryman  Carlyle.2 

Lord  Byron  (1788-1824) 

Professor  Alois  Brandl  in  his  essay  on  Goethes 
Verhaltnis  zu  Byron  3  makes  the  statement,  that  Mme.  de 
StaeTs  De  I'Allemagne,  which  contained  extracts  and  trans- 
lations from  Goethe,  had  contributed  more  than  any  other 
book  to  the  circumstance  "  that  the  English,  and  especially 
Byron,  had  taken  any  notice  of  him." 

That  Byron,  whom  Ticknor  calls  "  the  most  brilliant  man 
of  letters  in  England," 4  was  a  great  admirer  of  the 
Frenchwoman  and  her  writings  is  unquestionable,  and  he 
frequently  quoted  her  opinions  in  his  works.5  He  even 
imitated  her  style.  The  portrayal  of  the  ocean's  destructive 
power  in  Childe  Harold  6  recalls  the  description  of  Ancona 

1  In  his  Memories  are  found  not  only  his  poems  and  sonnets 
written  in  France,  but  his  early  translation  (before  1821)  of 
Goethe's  Der  Gott  und  die  Bajadere,  and  an  analysis  of  Tasso. 
with  translations,  III,  pp.   19-25. 

2  Cf.  For.  Q.  R.,  XVI,  pp.  1-20,  1835. 

"  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  XX,  pp.  3-37,  1899. 

*  Diary,  I,  p.  54. 

6  See  Dedication  to  Marino  Faliero;  Don  Juan,  III,  p.  86;  Bride 
of  Abydos.  First  verse  is  from  Mignon's  song,  through  the 
medium  of  De  I'Allemagne,  or  of  Corinne's  song  at  the  capitol. 

8  IV,  pp.  179-82. 


178         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

in  Corinne.1  When  Mme.  de  Stael  was  in  England  in 
1813  he  was  eager  to  meet  her,  and  later  he  often  enjoyed 
her  hospitality  at  Coppet,  where  her  brilliant,  genial 
nature  had  great  influence  on  his  rather  morose  state  of 
mind. 

To  be  sure,  Byron  had  studied  German  in  his  youth, 
but  it  made  no  lasting  impression  on  him,  and  he  speedily 
forgot  it. 

"  Abel  was,"  he  notes,  "  one  of  the  first  books  my  German 
master  read  to  me,  and  whilst  he  was  crying  his  eyes  out 
over  its  pages,  I  thought  that  any  other  than  Cain  had 
hardly  committed  a  crime  in  ridding  the  world  of  so  dull 
a  fellow  as  Gessner  made  brother  Abel."  Somewhat  dif- 
ferent is  his  criticism  in  the  preface  of  Cain  (1821),  where 
he  says :  '  The  general  impression  of  my  recollection  is 
delight."  2 

That  Schiller  also  played  a  part  in  Byron's  development 
is  clear  from  his  own  words :  In  Childe  Harold,*  in 
speaking  of  his  love  for  Venice,  he  says  that  "  Otway,  Rad- 
cliffe,  Schiller,  Shakespeare's  art,  had  stamped  her  image  " 
in  him.  His  early  poem,  Oscar  of  Alva:  a  Tale, 4  was  sug- 
gested, according  to  a  foot-note,  by  the  story  of  Jeronyme 
and  Lorenzo,  in  Schiller's  Geisterseher  (1787-89),  that  had 
been  translated  (1795)  into  English  by  Daniel  Boileau. 
From  a  letter  to  Murray,  April  2,  181 7,  we  learn  of  the 
powerful  impression  it  made  on  Byron.  .  .  .  '  Schiller's 
Armenian,  a  novel  which  took  a  great  hold  of  me  when 
a  boy.  It  is  also  called  The  Ghost  Seer,  and  I  never  walked 
down  St.  Mark's  by  moonlight  without  thinking  of  it,  and 

1  Bk.  i,  chap.  iv. 

2  Medwin  :   Conversations,  p.   150. 

3  IV,  p.  18. 

4  Hours  of  Idleness. 


England  179 

'  at  nine  o'clock  he  died;  '  In  the  Deformed  Transformed 
and  in  Manfred  are  found  motives  from  this  tale,  also  in 
Lara  and  in  the  drama  Werner.  Of  Schiller's  other  works, 
however,  the  one  that  had  the  most  influence  on  Byron's  lit- 
erary productions  was  Die  Rciuber.  Many  traits  from  Karl 
Moor  appear  in  all  of  Byron's  pirate  heroes,  especially  in 
the  Corsair.  In  the  preface  to  Werner,  he  states  his  obli- 
gation to  The  German's  Tale,  Kruitsner  by  Harriet  Lee, 
which,  in  turn,  was  an  imitation  of  Schiller's  Raiiber  and 
Geisterseher.  From  the  other  dramas  of  Schiller  Byron 
gained  less.  Motives  from  Don  Carlos  are  reflected  in  his 
poem,  Parisina;  in  Manfred,  Tell  is  mentioned  three  times ; 
the  conspiracy  in  Fiesco  finds  a  parallel  in  Marino  Faliero ; 
Wallenstein  probably  lent  his  demonic  element  to  the 
Byronic  hero ;  and  the  scene  in  Jungfrau  von  Orleans, 
where  Agnes  de  Sorel  urges  Charles  VII.  to -recall  Dunois, 
has  a  counterpart  in  Sardanapalus,  where  Myrrha  pleads 
with  the  sultan  on  behalf  of  Salamenes. 

Of  all  German  writers  who  influenced  Byron's  works, 
Goethe  stands  preeminent.  In  Manfred  the  influence  of 
Faust  is  most  apparent.  When  Goethe  read  the  drama 
he  wrote :  "  Byron's  tragedy,  Manfred,  was  to  me  a  won- 
derful phenomenon,  and  one  that  closely  touched  me. 
This  singularly  intellectual  poet  has  taken  my  Faust  to 
himself,  and  has  extracted  from  it  the  strongest  nourish- 
ment for  his  hypochondriac  humor.  He  has  made  use  of 
the  impelling  principles  in  his  own  way,  for  his  own  pur- 
poses, so  that  no  one  of  them  remains  the. same,  and  it  is 
particularly  on  this  account  that  I  cannot  enough  admire 
his  genius.  The  whole  is  in  this  way  so  completely  formed 
anew,  that  it  would  be  an  interesting  task,  for  the  critic 
to  point  out,  not  only  the  alterations  he  has  made,  but  their 
degree  of  resemblance  with,  or  dissimilarity  to,  the  original. 


180         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

In  the  course  of  which  I  cannot  deny,  that  the  gloomy  ardor 
of  an  unbounded  and  exuberant  despair  becomes  at  last 
oppressive  to  us.  Yet  is  the  dissatisfaction  we  feel  always 
connected  with  esteem  and  admiration."  This  critique  was 
copied  in  the  English  magazines,  and  active  partisans  1  for 
both  sides  arose. 

When  the  news  of  Goethe's  criticism  reached  Byron 
at  Ravenna,  he  felt  both  vexed  and  flattered.  The  follow- 
ing month  he.  wrote  to  Murray:  "Enclosed  is  something 
which  will  interest  you ;  to  wit,  the  opinion  of  the  greatest 
man  in  Germany,  perhaps  in  Europe  ...  in  short,  a 
critique  of  Goethe's  upon  Manfred.  There  is  the  original, 
an  English  translation  and  an  Italian  one ;  keep  them  all 
in  your  archives,  for  the  opinions  of  such  a  man  as  Goethe, 
whether  favorable  or  not,  are  always  interesting — and  this 
is  more  so,  as  favorable.  His  Faust  I  never  read,  for  I 
don't  know  German,  but  Matthew  Monk  Lewis,  in  1816, 
at  Coligny,  translated  most  of  it  to  me  viva  voce,  and  I 
was  naturally  much  struck  with  it,  but  it  was  the  Stein- 
bach  and  the  Jungfrau,  and  something  else,  much  more 
than  Faustns  that  made  me  write  Manfred.  The  first 
scene,   however,   and   that   of   Faustus,   are   very   similar." 


1  Cf.  Carlyle  in  New  Ed.  Review,  1822 ;  Gillies :  Memories,  I, 
p.  16;  H.  C.  Robinson:  Diary,  II,  p.  108;  Dublin  Review,  IX,  pp. 
477-506,  Nov.,  1840;  Jeffrey  in  Ed.  Rev.;  Blackwood,  XV,  pp. 
619-32,  June,  1824. 

Cf.  Blackwood,  I,  pp.  236-58:  "We  cannot,  indeed,  avoid  assent- 
ing to  Goethe's  supposition  that  Faustus  suggested  Lord  Byron's 
wonderful  drama,  Manfred;  Manfred,  however,  like  the  rest  of 
Lord  Byron's  poems,  soon  becomes  a  personification  of  the  author's 
own  feelings,  and  he  forgets  Faustus  and  Goethe  and  everything 
but  himself  long  before  the  dark  termination  of  the  story." 

Cf.  Baldwin's  London  Magazine,  May  20:  "Goethe's  remarks  are 
curious,  as  showing  his  opinions  of  Lord  Byron's  obligations  to 
Faustus,  which,  however,  are  not  as  great  as  he  imagines." 


England  181 

For  a  detailed  comparison  of  the  two  works,  the  reader 
is  referred  to  Professor  Brandl's  study.1 

In  1820  Byron  wrote  his  tragedy  Marino  Faliero  and 
dedicated  it  to  the  great  Goethe,  "  hy  far  the  first  literary 
character  which  has  existed  in  Europe  since  the  death  of 
Voltaire."  Unfortunately,  the  dedication  sent  Oct.  7, 
1820,  did  not  reach  Goethe  until  1831,  long  after  the  Eng- 
lish poet's  death,  when  it  was  presented  to  him  by  the 
younger  John  Murray.  Its  first  appearance  in  print  was 
in  Moore's  Memoirs  of  Byron.  The  following  year  (1821) 
appeared  Sardanapalus,  a  Tragedy,  and  its  dedication  read 
as  follows:  "To  the  Illustrious  Goethe.  A  stranger  pre- 
sumes to  offer  the  homage  of  a  literary  vassal  to  his  liege 
lord,  the  first  of  existing  writers,  who  has  created  the 
literature  of  his  own  country,  and  illustrates  that  of 
Europe."  By  some  delay,  too,  this  dedication  did  not 
reach  Goethe  until  March  24,  1823,  when  it  arrived  with 
a  copy  of  Werner,  which  bore  the  inscription,  "To  the 
illustrious  Goethe  by  one  of  his  humblest  admirers."  2 

According  to  Medwin,3,  Byron  was  so  enthusiastic  over 
Goethe  and  Faust  that  he  declared  he  would  give  £100 
sterling  to  the  one  who  would  translate  for  him  into  Eng- 
lish Dichtung  und  Wahrhcit.  He  said :  "  I  have  a  great 
curiosity  about  everything  relating  to  Goethe,  and  please 
myself  with  thinking  there  is  some  analogy  between  our 
characters  and  writings.  So  much  interest  do  I  take  in 
him."4  In  his  Diary  Byron  notes  Jan.  12,  1821,  in  his 
discussion    of    Grillparzer's    Sappho,    which    he   much    ad- 

1  Goethes   Verh'dltnis  su  Byron,  Goethe  Jahrbnch,   1899,  XX,  pp. 

3-37- 

2  Cf.  Medwin,  p.  329:  "  I  look  upon  Goethe  as  the  greatest  genius 

that  the  age  has  produced." 
8  Pp.  329-30. 
4  Medwin,   p.   267. 


1 82        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

mired  and  which  influenced  to  some  extent  his  Sardana- 
palus:  "  I  must  premise,  however,  that  I  have  read  nothing 
of  Adolf  Milliner's  (the  author  of  Guilt),  and  much  less 
of  Goethe  and  Schiller  and  Wieland,  than  I  could  wish. 
I  only  know  them  through  the  medium  of  English,  French, 
and  Italian  translations." 

Besides  Manfred,  there  are  other  Byronic  poems  and 
tragedies  which  show  traces  of  the  influence  of  Faust. 
In  Cain:  a  Mystery  (1821),  which  Richard  Ackermann 
calls  "  the  song  of  scepticism,"  1  Lucifer  recalls  not  only 
Marlowe's  devil  but  Goethe's  Mephistopheles.  Cain  has 
traits  of  Faust,  and  Adah  bears  a  slight  resemblance  to 
Gretchen. 

In  the  preface  to  the  drama,  The  Deformed  Trans- 
formed (1824),  Byron  confessed  that  his  production  was 
founded  "  partly  on  the  Faust  of  the  great  Goethe."  When 
Shelley  was  asked  his  opinion,  he  frankly  declared  it  "  a 
poor  imitation  of  Faust."  In  The  Dream  (1816),  Heaven 
and  Earth,  a  Mystery  (1821),  and  in  The  Two  Foscari 
(1821)  appear  allusions,  as  in  Faust,  to  the  problems  of 
human  life  and  knowledge.  Byron's  Conrad  (The  Corsair, 
1814),  Lara  (1814),  Christian  (The  Island,  1823),  and 
Don  Juan  (1817-19,  1821-22),  all  bear  on  their  brows  the 
stigma  of  the  wanderer  Cain,  the  doubts  of  a  Faust,  the 
unrest  of  an  Ahasuerus,  and  the  discord  of  a  Tannhauser.2 

While  there  are  many  traces  of  Goethe's  influence  on 
Byron,  we  can  notice,  on  the  other  hand,  a  deep  apprecia- 
tion of  the  personality  and  the  genius  of  the  English  poet 

1  Lord  Byron — sein  Leben,  seine  Werke,  sein  Einfluss  auf  die 
dentsche  Literatur,  p.  20. 

2  Cf.  Blackw.,  XV,  pp.  619-32,  June,  1824,  Art. :  Carlyle's  Trans- 
lation of  Wilhelm  Meister.  Note,  p.  624:  "By  the  way,  it  would 
seem  as  if  Lord  Byron  had  meant  to  give  us  a  closer  shadow  of 
Mignon  in  his  Don  Juan." 


England  183 

on  the  part  of  Goethe.  '  His  genius  is  great ;  he  was  born 
great;  no  one  has  greater  poetic  power,"  he  said  of  Byron. 
He  was  never  weary  of  talking  about  his  "  incommensur- 
able "  talent,  as  Eckermann's  Gesprdche  abundantly  testify.1 
And  what  are  some  of  his  opinions  about  the  Englishman? 
Byron  "  possesses  the  daemonic  quality  in  a  very  high 
degree," 2  is  a  person  "  of  such  eminence  as  has  never 
existed  before  and  probably  will  not  again,"  3  he  is  related 
to  Schiller  *  in  spirit,5  though  he  has  "  too  much  empiri- 
cism," 6  and  is  "  one  of  the  most  productive  geniuses  who 
ever  lived."  7  "  His  dramas,  especially  Cain,  show  beauty 
and  excellent  motivation."  8  From  the  Deformed  Trans- 
formed Goethe  was  fond  of  quoting  the  passage, 

"The  devil  speaks  truth  much  oftener  than  'tis  deemed; 
He  hath  an  ignorant  audience,"  9 

and  said  he  considered  it  as  good  as  any  remark  by  his 
own  Mephistopheles.  Byron's  demon,  he  thought,  "  was 
suggested  by  Mephistopheles.  It  is,  however,  no  imitation, 
but  a  new  and  original  creation  of  great  merit.  There 
are  no  weak  passages,  not  a  place  where  you  could  put 
the  head  of  a  pin,  where  you  do  not  find  invention  and 

1  See  Oct.  19,  1823 ;— Feb.  24,  25,  and  26 ;  May  18,  Dec.  3  and  25 
in  1824; — Jan.  10,  Feb.  24,  June  11,  Dec.  25  in  1825; — Feb.  16,  Nov. 
8  and  29  in  1826;— Jan.  18,  May  15,  June  20,  July  5  and  15  in  1827; — 
Mar.  11,  Dec.  16  in  1828 ;— Jan.  3,  Mar.  3  in  1829;— Mar.  14, 
Sept.  14  in  1830;  Feb.  11,  Mar.  8  and  21  in  183 1 ;  Goethe's  letter 
to  Medwin,  dated  July  16,  1824.     Conversations,  p.  343. 

2  Mar.  8,  1831. 
*  Oct.  19,  1823. 

4  Cf.  Bancroft :  Miscellanies,  p.   188. 

6  Jan.  18,  1827. 
0  Nov.  18,  1821. 

7  Mar.  11,  1828. 

8  June  20,  1827. 

9  Nov.  29,   1826. 


184         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

thought.     But  for  his  hypochondriac  turn,  he  would  have 
been  as  great  as  Shakespeare,  as  the  ancients."  1 

Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  on  his  visit  to  Weimar  in  1829, 
spent  several  evenings  with  Goethe.  In  his  Diary  he  gives 
an  interesting  account  of  their  conversations.  He  writes : 
'  This,  and  indeed  every  evening,  I  believe,  Lord  Byron 
was  the  subject  of  his  praise.  He  said:  '  Es  sind  keine 
Flickworter  im  Gedichte.'  (There  is  no  padding  in  his 
poetry.)"  Of  Byron's  serious  poems  Goethe  preferred 
Heaven  and  Earth  and  Cain;  saying  that  Byron  should 
have  lived  to  execute  his  vocation.  ".  .  .  'And  that  was?' 
I  asked.  '  To  dramatize  the  Old  Testament.  What  a 
subject  under  his  hands  would  the  Tower  of  Babel  have 
been !  '  "  Goethe  praised  Byron's  views  of  nature  as  '  pro- 
found and  poetical,'  and  admired  '  the  indomitable  spirit 
of  Manfred.'  Even  at  the  last  he  was  not  conquered. 
Power  in  all  its  forms  Goethe  had  respect  for.  This  he 
had  in  common  with  Carlyle.  And  the  impudence  of 
Byron's  satire  he  felt  and  enjoyed."  In  the  Vision  of 
Judgment  (1821)  the  "verses  on  George  IV.,"  he  said, 
"  were  the  sublime  of  hatred,"  and  "  with  one  single  line 
of  Don  Juan  Byron  could  poison  the  whole  of  Jerusalem 
Delivered."  2 

Besides  this  constant  expression  of  admiration  Goethe 
translated  into  German  the  incantation  in  Manfred 
("When  the  moon  is  on  the  wave"),  Manfred's  mono- 
logue ("We  are  the  fools  of  time  and  terror"),  and  the 
beginning  of  the  first  canto  of  Don  Juan  ("I  want  a 
hero  ").  Then,  according  to  Brandl,3  he  also  rendered  into 
German  verse  Fare  thee  well    (1816)    and   from   Heaven 

1  Nov.  8.  1826. 

2  Eckermann,  May  18.  1824.     Cf.  Ticknor,  I,  p.  114. 

3  Goethe  Jahrbuch,  XX,  pp.  3-37,  1899. 


England  185 

and  Earth  the  first  address  of  Anah  to  her  angel  lover 
Azaziel,  beginning,  ''Seraph!  From  thy  sphere!''  These 
poems  are  now  preserved  in  the  Weimar  archives. 

Soon  after  Byron's  death  at  Missolonghi,  Goethe  com- 
posed his  Lebensverhaltnis  su  Byron  for  Kunst  und 
Altertum.  This  essay  he  concludes  as  follows :  "  But  now 
the  conviction  arises  in  us,  that  his  nation  will  awaken  out 
of  its  vehement,  censuring,  and  reviling  intoxication  into 
soberness,  and  will  universally  comprehend  that  all  the 
husks  and  dross  of  time  and  of  the  individual,  through 
which  the  best  must  work  itself  outward,  have  been  only 
transient,  temporary,  and  perishable,  while,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  astonishing  fame  to  which  he  is  now  exalting, 
and  will  exalt,  his  nation  in  the  future,  remains  unlimited 
in  its  splendor  and  incalculable  in  its  consequences.  Surelv 
this  nation,  which  can  boast  of  so  many  great  names,  will 
place  him  clarified  among  those,  by  whom  it  is  ever  hon- 
ored." 1 

.  To  his  admiration  of  Byron  we  are  indebted  for  the 
Euphorion  episode  in  the  Helena  scene,  composed  during 
this  same  period.  When  Eckermann  told  Goethe  that  he 
did  right  to  erect  an  immortal  monument-  to  Byron  in  the 
Helena,  Goethe  answered,  "  I  could  not  make  any  man 
the  representative  of  the  modern  poetical  era  except  him, 
who  undoubtedly  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  genius 
of  our  century.  He  is  neither  classic  nor  romantic,  but  the 
reflection  of  our  own  day.  He  suited  me  in  every  respect, 
with  his  unsatisfied  nature  and  his  warlike  tendency,  which 
led  to  his  death  at  Missolonghi.  It  were  neither  con- 
venient nor  advisable  to  write  a  treatise  upon  Byron;  but 
I  shall  not  omit  to  pay  him  honor  at  proper  times."  2 

1  Cf.  Eckermann,  Feb.  16,  1826. 
'July  5,   1S27. 


186        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

That  Goethe  considered  Byron  a  cultural  force  is  shown 
by  his  words  to  Eckermann,  who  had  hazarded  the  state- 
ment that  he  doubted  whether  the  interests  of  human  cul- 
ture had  been  furthered  by  Byron's  writings :  "  I  must 
contradict  you  here,"  said  Goethe,  "  Byron's  fearlessness, 
audacity,  and  grandeur,  is  not  that  cultural?  We  must  be 
very  careful  not  to  confine  ourselves  to  what  is  distinctively 
moral  and  decorous.  All  greatness  is  cultural,  as  soon  as 
we  can  perceive  it."  a  Carlyle,  too,  voices  the  same  senti- 
ment :  "  Our  Byron  was  in  his  youth  but  what  Schiller  and 
Goethe  had  been  in  theirs ;  yet  the  author  of  Werther 
wrote  Iphigenie  and  Torquato  Tasso;  and  he  who  began 
with  the  Robbers  ended  with  Wilhelm  Tell.  With  longer 
life  all  things  were  to  have  been  hoped  from  Byron ;  for 
he  loved  truth  in  his  inmost  heart  and  would  have  dis- 
covered at  last  that  his  Corsairs  and  Harolds  were  not 
true."  2 

Byron's  influence  was  far-reaching.  The  French  ro- 
mantic school,  especially  Hugo,  Lamartine,  and  De  Musset, 
may  be  mentioned ;  also  the  later  German  romanticists, 
Jung-Deutschland,  of  wrhich  Borne  and  Heine  are  noted 
examples;  the  .Norwegians,  Wergeland,  Bjornson,  and 
Ibsen ;  the  Italians,  Ugo  Foscolo,  M anzoni,  and  Leopardi, 
and  especially  Polish  and  Russian  writers.  To  use  Wed- 
dingen's  words :  3  "  Byron  is  the  secret  bond  that  unites 
the  entire  literature  of  the  Slavs  to  that  of  the  West,  and 
we  can  even  maintain,  that,  although  among  the  nations  of 

1  Dec.  16,  1828. 

2  Cf.  preface  to  Faust  II,  translated  by  Archer  Gurney,  London, 
1842.  Cf.  Karl  Elze :  Lord  Byron,  a  Biography,  and  his  Place  in 
Literature,  London,  1872:  ''On  his  own  territory,  Byron  was  a 
moral  monster,  of  which  no  one  may  speak." 

3  Lord  Byrons  Einfluss  auf  die  europ'dischen  Litteraturen  der 
Neuzeit,  Hanover,  1884. 


England  187 

the  West,  the  series  of  productions  by  great  writers  has 
been  interrupted,  yet  at  the  same  time,  those  types  that 
were  created  by  Byron  continue  to  multiply  under  the  pen 
of  the  Slavs  and  take  on  new  forms."  Through  Byron, 
then,  Goethe's  influence  has  descended  to  the  modern  writ- 
ers of  Europe.1 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley   (1792-1822) 

Theodor  Zeiger  says  2  that  "  probably  Mme.  de  StaeTs 
book  De  VAllemagne  was  the  occasion  for  Shelley's,  as  well 
as  Byron's,  turning  his  attention  again  to  German  litera- 
ture." 

While  a  student  at  Eton,  Shelley  had  begun  the  study 
of  German  works,  and  found  delight  in  thrilling  tales  of 
horror,  as  exemplified  in  Monk  Lewis's  works  and  in 
Schiller's  Raitber.  In  his  first  novel  Zastrozd  (1810)  are 
unmistakable  traces  of  this  influence.  Wallenstein,  read 
in  Coleridge's  translation,  is  the  only  one  of  all  Schiller's 
greater  dramas  that  influenced  Shelley's  poetic  creations. 
With  a  natural  predilection  for  the  ghostly  and  super- 
natural it  is  clear  that  Burger's  Lenore  would  attract  him. 
As  in  the  case  of  Walter  Scott,  that  ballad  first  made  Shel- 
ley a  poet,  for  his  biographer,  Chas.  Middleton,  declares 
that  Burger's  Lenore  "  first  awakened  his  poetic  faculty."  3 
In  Sister  Rosa   (1808)  and  in  St.  Irvyne  or  the  Rosicru- 

1  Cf.  Blackw.,  XV,  p.  621,  June,  1824:  "If  anyone  asks  who  are  the 
three  writers  that  have  directly  made  the  greatest  impression  on 
the  literature  of  our  time — out  of  Germany — there  can  be  but  one 
answer!  Mme.  de  Stael  among  foreigners — Sir  Walter  Scott  and 
Lord  Byron  among  ourselves." 

2  Koch's  Studien  cur  vergl.  Litteraturgesch.,  I,  pp.  238-58,  273- 
319,  1901 ;  Deutsche  Litteratur  in  England  am  Schlusse  des  18.  und 
im  ersten  Viertel  des  19.  Jahrhunderts. 

3  I,  P.  47- 


1 88         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

cian  (1810)  are  suggestions  of  the  German  ballad.  The 
latter  poem  also  contains  a  mixture  of  motives  from  Vul- 
pius,  Zschokke,  Goethe's  Faust,  and  other  German  writers. 
The  Spectral  Horseman,  furthermore,  recalls  Der  wilde 
Jager. 

Shelley  had  a  decided  preference  for  the  figure  of  the 
Wandering  Jew.  In  translation,  he  read  Schubart's  Ahas- 
verus,  der  eivige  Jude,  which  inspired  his  poem,  The  Wan- 
dering Jezv  (1809),  a  work  that  also  recalls  Schiller's 
Geisterseher.  The  same  figure  appears  again  in  Queen 
Mab,  also  in  his  unfinished  novel,  The  Assassins,  and  in 
the  poem  Hellas. 

That  Shelley  read  German  literature  to  some  extent  is 
evident  from  the  lists  of  works  mentioned  by  Edward 
Dowden,  his  biographer.  He  read  the  works  of  Lessing, 
Wieland.  and  Schiller,  but  his  favorite  authors  were  Goethe, 
Kant,  Plato,  Spinoza,  Calderon,  and  the  classic  Greek 
dramatists.1 

Of  all  German  authors  Goethe  made  the  deepest  im- 
pression on  Shelley,  especially  in  his  Faust.  This  is  prob- 
ably because  "  Shelley  is  clearly  modern,  and  shares  with 
Wordsworth  and  Coleridge,  Byron  and  Hemans,  the  feel- 
ing of  the  Infinite,  which  so  labors  for  expression  in  their 
different  genius."  2 

In  1814  he  lived  for  six  weeks  in  Germany,  studying  the 
language.  The  next  year  he  translated  a  portion  of  the 
beginning  of  Faust.  At  Byron's  urgent  request  for  an  Eng- 
lish version,  Shelley  then  proceeded  to  translate  other 
selections,  infusing  into  his  fragments  much  poetic  beauty 
and  simplicity. 

While  in  Switzerland  (1816)  Shelley  made  a  translation 

*Cf.  Dowden,  pp.  176,  513,  523. 

2  Emerson :  Journal,  1839,  V,  p.  344. 


England  189 

from  Faust  and  showed  it  to  Byron.  Later  with  Byron  at 
Pisa,1  he  again  occupied  himself  with  polishing  his  frag- 
ment and  adding  translations  of  the  Prolog  im  Himmel 
and  Walpurgisnacht.  Of  this  drama  he  writes:  "I  have 
been  reading  over  and  over  again  Faust  and  always  with 
sensations  which  no  other  composition  excites." 

According  to  Shelley's  friend,  Thomas  Love  Peacock, 
"  Brown's  four  novels,  Schiller's  Robbers,  and  Goethe's 
Faust  were  of  all  the  works  with  which  he  was  familiar 
those  which  took  the  deepest  root  in  Shelley's  mind  and 
had  the  strongest  influence  in  the  formation  of  his  char- 
acter." 2 

That  Shelley  succeeded  to  a  great  extent  in  his  work 
is  evinced  by  a  statement  in  an  English  edition  of  Faustus 
in  1832.  "  The  scene  is  the  first  specimen,  we  believe,  of 
a  poetical  English  translation  of  that  extraordinary  pro- 
duction, to  which  no  man  was  better  able  to  do  justice 
than  our  lamented  friend.  The  poetic  reader  will  feel 
with  what  vivacity  he  has  encountered  the  ghastly  bustle 
of  the  revellers, — with  what  apprehensiveness  of  tact,  yet 
strength  of  security,  he  has  carried  us  into  the  thick  of  the 
'  witch  element.'  .  .  .  Mr.  Shelley  went  to  his  work  in  a 
kindred  spirit  of  genius."  3    Even  that  connoisseur  of  Ger- 

1  Dowden,  p.  526. 

2  Cf.  Edw.  Dowden :  Life  of  P.  B.  Shelley,  London,  1896,  I, 
p.  268. 

3  Cf.  London  Examiner,  No.  1312,  Mar.  24,  1833:  "Everyone 
knows  the  magnificent  translations  left  by  Shelley  of  the  Prologue 
in  Heaven  and  the  May  Day  Night  scene,  fragments  which  of 
themselves  have  won  many  a  young  mind  to  the  arduous  task  of 
the  German  language." 

Cf.  Ed.  R.,  LVII,  p.  128,  Apr.,  1833.  Art.:  Hayward's  Transla- 
tion of  Faust:  "In  two  fragments  of  Faust,  especially  in  that  of 
May  Day  night,  Shelley  has  given  a  splendid  proof  that  he,  too,  as 
well  as  Coleridge,  was  born  to  translate  from  the  German." 


190         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

man  literature,  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  who,  despite  his 
antagonism  to  Shelley,  found  "  very  much  delightful 
poetry " x  in  his  works,  reminded  Goethe  in  a  letter, 
Jan.  31,  1829,  that  he  had  not  perceived  in  Kunst  und 
Altertum  "  any  notice  of  the  splendid  fragments  from 
Faust  by  Shelley,  Lord  Byron's  friend,  a  man  of  un- 
questionable genius."  2 

John  Anster,  LL.D.  (1793-1867) 

It  was  Mme.  de  Stael's  De  l'Allemagne  that  first  at- 
tracted John  Anster,  Irish  barrister  and  Professor  of  Civil 
Law  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  to  Faust.  This  is  attested 
by  his  numerous  references  to  her  in  his  article,  The  Faustus 
of  Goethe,  printed  June  1820  in  Blackzvood's  Edinburgh 
Magazine?  To  him,  therefore,  belongs  the  credit  of  being 
the  first  Briton  to  translate  into  English  selections  from 
Faust.  In  this  article,  Anster  gives  an  analysis  of  the  first 
part  of  Faust,  with  copious  translations   from  the  drama. 

Despite  his  failure  to  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  Faust, 
Anster's  review  was  in  general  so  sympathetic  that  it  had 
considerable  influence  on  the  readers  of  the  magazine. 
Thomas  Moore,  the  poet,  wrote  in  his  Journal  Oct.  16, 
1820:  "  I  sat  up  to  read  the  account  of  Dr.  Faustus  in  the 
Edinburgh  Magazine  and,  before  I  went  to  bed,  experi- 
enced one  of  those  bursts  of  devotion  which,  perhaps,  are 
worth  all  the  church-going  forms  in  the  world.  Tears 
came  fast  from  me  as  I  knelt  down  to  adore  the  one  only 
God  whom  I  acknowledge,  and  poured  forth  the  aspira- 
tions of  a  soul  deeply  grateful  for  all  his  goodness."  4 

1  Diary,  II,  p.  221. 

4  Ibid.,  II,  p.  81. 

3  VII,  pp.  235-38,  No.  5,  of  the  Horco  Germaniccs. 

*  Memoirs,  Journal,  and  Correspondence  of  Thos.  Moore,  edited 


England  191 

Before  this  time,  however,  Anster  had  gained  a  certain 
amount  of  fame  as  a  poet.  As  early  as  181 5  appeared  a 
volume  of  short  poems ;  two  years  later  he  received  a  prize 
for  the  best  poem  on  the  death  of  Princess  Charlotte.  In 
1819  appeared  another  volume  of  poems  with  translations 
from  the  German,  including  Goethe's  Braut  von  Korinth. 
Several  years  later  (1837)  he  issued  his  Xeniola,  a  col- 
lection of  original  poems,  with  many  translations  from 
the  German.1 

Anster's  crowning  work  is  his  poetical  translation  of 
Faust,  which  to-day  is  ranked  by  students  as  one  of  the 
best  English  versions  of  that  drama.  That  it  has  been  a 
"  cherished  favorite  "  2  is  attested  by  its  many  editions  and 
by  the  different  German  reprints  in  the  Tauchnitz  Collec- 
tion of  German  Authors.  '  It  will  always  be  praised  as 
classical  in  style  and  in  fine  understanding  of  the  lan- 
guage." 3 

In  1835  appeared  his  version  of  Faust  I,  as  well  as  the 
Bride  of  Corinth  and  the  First  Walpurgis  Night,  illustrated 
with  copious  notes.  In  the  preface  he  mentions  his  early 
article  in  Blackz^ood's,  and  says  that  he  had  translated  the 
Walpurgisnacht  before  Shelley  made  his  version,  but  had 
not  published  it  at  once.4  He  then  states  his  early  inten- 
tion  of   translating  the  whole   first  part  but   that   he  had 

by  the   Right   Hon.   Lord  John   Russell,  M.P.,  in  8  vols.,   London, 
1853,  HI,  p.  157. 

1  Hymn,  Memory  (S.  E.  Wilhelmina  von  Sassen)  ;  Ram  des 
V aches  (from  Wilhelm  Tell,  act  i,  scene  i)  ;  The  Pilgrimage  (a 
drama  by  De  la  Motte  Fouque)  ;  The  Five  Oaks  of  Dallwitz 
(Korner),  and  a  Gypsy  Song. 

2  Dub.  R.,  IX,  pp.  477-506,  Art. :  Faust— Its  Sacred  Poetry. 

3  Die  Gegenwart,  Bd.  V,  pt.  i,  Nr.  24-25,  pp.  375-77,  394-95,  Art. : 
Goethe's  Faust  in  England,  by  Hermann  Kindt,  Berlin,  June  13  and 
20,  1874. 

4  See    Dublin    Univ.    R.,    No.    3. 


192         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

delayed  in  the  undertaking.  By  Hayward's  sympathetic 
mention  of  his  early  efforts  he  was  again  incited  to  com- 
plete the  task. 

Anster's  translation  at  once  found  great  favor  among  the 
reviewers.  Whatever  criticism  arose  was  in  reference  to  his 
amplifications  and  his  use  of  blank  verse.  He  was  "  essen- 
tially a  poet ;  perhaps  too  much  so,  to  be  a  perfectly  close 
translator."  1  The  critic  in  Blackzuood's  2  commended  es- 
pecially this  passage : 3 

"  Oh !  how  the  spell  before  my  sight 
Brings  nature's  hidden  ways  to  light : 
See  all  things  with  each  other  blending — 
Each  to  all  its- being  lending, 
All  on  each  in  turn  depending — 
Heavenly  ministers  descending, 
And  to  Heaven  again  uptending — 
Floating,  mingling,  interweaving, 
Rising,  sinking,  and  receiving 
Each  from  each,  while  each  is  giving 
On  to  each  and  each  relieving 
Each,  the  pails  of  gold,  the  living 
Current  through  the  air  is  heaving: 
Breathing  blessings  see  them  bending 
Balanced  worlds  from  change  defending, 
While  everywhere  diffused  is  harmony  unending." 

A  very  poetic  passage  indeed,  but  the  original  seven 
lines  have  been  stretched  out  to  sixteen.  Still,  Anster  is 
not  quite  as  bad  as  Coleridge,  who  makes  seven  English 
verses  out  of  two  German  ones.4     Another  selection,  much 

1  Dublin  R.,  IX,  pp.  477-506,  Nov.,  1840,  Art. :  Faust — Its  Sacred 
Poetry. 

2  XLVII,  pp.  223-40,  Feb.,  1840,  Art. :  Poetical  Translations  of 
Faust. 

3  "  Wie  alles  sich  zum  Ganzen  webt !  " 

4  Cf.  Ed.  R.,  LXII,  pp.  36-45,  Oct.,  1833,  and  Westm.  R.,  XXV, 
pp.  366-90,  July,  1836. 


England  193 

admired,  was  his  rendition  of  the  poet's  longing  for  his 
youth,1  which  from  fourteen  original  verses  is  extended  to 
twenty-five  lines. 

Nearly  thirty  years  afterward  Anster's  version  of  the 
second  part  appeared.  As  stated  in  the  preface,  he  had  been 
translating  passages  from  it  day  by  day,  without  any  thought 
of  publication.  Finally  a  member  of  his  family  became 
interested  in  the  subject,  and  felt  it  was  desirable  that  these 
portions  should  be  given  to  the  world. 

In  a  review  of  Anster's  version  2  a  critic  writes  that  it 
is  "  not  only  the  finest  reflection  of  the  work  we  possess, 
but  the  best  poetic  rendering  of  any  of  the  great  works  of 
modern  continental  literature  which  has  appeared.  ...  It 
is  pleasant  and  hopeful  to  turn  from  the  long  array  of  in- 
different English  poetic  translations — in  most  of  which  a 
caput  mortuum  is  all  that  remains  of  the  foreign  authors, 
and  some  of  the  best  of  which  but  resemble  wax  as  com- 
pared to  natural  flowers,  in  which,  though  the  meaning  is 
represented,  the  spirit  has  flown — to  those  of  Dr.  Anster, 
who,  to  the  secondary  advantages  of  a  thorough  familiarity 
with  the  language  of  Goethe,  superadds  the  rare  and  pri- 
mary one  of  being  a  poet  himself." 

Although  Anster's  translation  does  not  faithfully  repro- 
duce the  original,  yet,  through  the  ease,  grace,  and  fluency 
of  his  versification,  he  succeeded  in  creating  a  vital  and 
enduring  interest  in  Faust.  For  this  service  much  grati- 
tude is  due  him. 

After  Anster's  death  distinguished  literary  Germans  re- 
siding in  Ireland  expressed  their  sympathy  and  desired 
"  to  place  on  record  their  profound  sense  of  the  important 
services  rendered  by  Dr.  Anster  as  an  eminent  scholar  and 

1  "  So  gieb  mir  auch  die  Zeiten  wieder." 

3  Eel.  Mag.,  old  ser.,  LIV,  pp.  97-102,  Jan.,  1865. 


194         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

poet    in    the    promotion    of    German    literature "    in    that 
country.1 

Mrs.  Sarah  Taylor  Austin  (1793-1867) 

"  If  nations  begin  at  last  to  understand  each  other's  true 
interests,  morally  and  politically,  it  will  be  through  the 
agency  of  gifted  men;  but  if  ever  they  learn  to  love  and 
sympathize  with  each  other,  it  will  be  through  the  medium 
of  you  women,"  so  says  Medon  to  Alda  in  Mrs.  Jameson's 
Visits  and  Sketches  at  Home  and  Abroad.2  Such  was  the 
international  service  rendered  by  three  women  writers, 
Mrs.  Austin,  Mrs.  Jameson,  and  Mrs.  Hemans. 

Reared  at  Norwich,  the  early  home  of  Germanism  in 
England,  Mrs.  Austin  at  an  early  age  came  in  contact  with 
such  earnest  students  of  German  thought  as  Wm.  Taylor, 
Mrs.  Barbauld,  Henry  Crabb  Robinson,  Lucy  Aikin,  Mrs. 
Amelia  Opie,  the  Gurneys,  and  Southey.  Her  first  Ger- 
man instruction  was  given  by  a  learned  and  excellent 
teacher,  Mr.  Heilner,  the  author  of  an  admirable  German 
grammar.  Mrs.  Austin  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  Mme. 
de  Stael's  writings,  as  we  may  judge  from  the  numerous 
references  in  her  works. 

In  1827  the  Austins  went  to  Germany  so  that  Mr.  Austin 
might  study  law  at  Bonn  and  thus  fit  himself  for  the  chair 
of  jurisprudence  at  the  new  London  University.  While 
there  Mrs.  Austin  continued  her  own  study  of  German  and 
supervised  that  of  her  little  daughter  Lucie.  After  her 
return  to  London  Mrs.  Austin  assisted  her  husband  in  his 
extensive  correspondence,  wrote  for  periodicals,  and  helped 
Lucie  in  her  German.     To  Mrs.  Reeve,  the  mother  wrote 

1  Cf.  Gent.  Mag.,  new  ser.,  IV,  p.  250,  Aug.,  1867. 
*  I,  p.  17. 


England  195 

in  1829:  "German  she  keeps  up,  reading,  writing,  and 
speaking  it  constantly,"  and  then  added :  "  I  am  more  and 
more  convinced  that  en  fait  de  language,  German  is  the 
most  important  acquisition  an  Englishman  can  make.  The 
characteristics  of  German  literature  are  dispassionateness 
of  inquiry  and  reality  of  knowledge,  and  these  are  singu- 
larly valuable  to  the  native  of  a  country  where  everything 
is  impatiently  pushed  forward  to  answer  the  ends  of  imme- 
diate gain."  1 

Carlyle,  whose  admiration  for  others  was  often  tinged 
with  sarcasm,  had  only  good  words  to  speak  of  this  "  ver- 
standige,  herzhafte  Frau."  2  After  a  visit  there,  he  writes 
Sept.  4,  1831,  to  his  wife:  "The  Frau  Austin  herself 
was  as  loving  as  ever — a  true  Germanized  spiritual 
screamikin."  3 

In  1831  Mrs.  Austin  translated  Prince  Hermann  von 
Piickler-Muskau's  book,  Tour  in  England,  Ireland,  and 
France,  which  was  published  the  following  year  and  which 
won  for  her  the  approbation  of  Carlyle.  After  reading 
the  work,  John  Sterling,  an  English  conservative,  writes 
July  9,  1832,  to  her  a  letter  praising  her  ability,  but  adds 
a  warning  note :  "  The  most  disgraceful  part  of  the  busi- 
ness is  Goethe's  praise  of  the  Tourist.  You  do  not  admire 
or  respect  him,  but  the  ablest  German  since  Luther,  or  at 
least  since  Leibniz,  does  both."  4 

Sterling's  criticism,  instead  of  deterring  Mrs.  Austin, 
served  as  a  spur  in  urging  her  to  try  to  remove  this  unjust 
prejudice  toward  her  favorite  author.  In  1833  appeared 
her  monumental  work,  the  Characteristics  of  Goethe.     Be- 

1  Ross,  p.  63. 
s  Journal,  Dec.  18,  1832. 
•  Froude,  II,  pp.  189-90. 

4  Ross,  p.  70.  Cf.  Ath.,  No.  286,  p.  249,  Apr.  30,  1833.  Art.: 
Goethe's  Posthumous  Works. 


196         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

sides  the  memoirs  of  Falk  and  von  Midler,  Mrs.  Austin 
consulted  Mme.  de  StaeTs  De  l'Allemagne,  Soret's  Con- 
versations, Goethe's  works,  such  as  Kunst  und  Altertum, 
Tag-  und  Jahres-Hefte,  and  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  and  the 
Conversations-Lexikon.  Friends  were  asked  to  contribute 
their  quota ;  and  Wm.  Taylor,  Scott,  Coleridge,  Henry 
Crabb  Robinson,  A.  Heller,  Carlyle,  Varnhagen  von  Ense, 
and  Prince  Hermann  von  Piickler-Muskau  furnished  sug- 
gestions or  material.  To  Mrs.  Carlyle  she  wrote  Dec. 
25,  1832,  about  her  work:  "  Meantime  Falk  is  getting  on. 
Falk  eigentlich  has  long  been  done ;  but  matter  keeps  con- 
gregating around  him.  Frau  von  Goethe  sent  me  by  Henry 
Reeve,  Goethe  in  seiner  praktischen  IVirksamkeit  by  Von 
Miiller,  Kanzler  of  Weimar.  She  sent  it  '  with  her  best 
love  '  and  with  the  assurance  that  He  was  just  about  to 
write  to  me  when  he  died — that  one  of  the  last  things  he 
read  was  my  translation,  with  which  he  kindly  said  he  was 
much  pleased.  You  will  be  able  to  estimate  the  value  I 
set  upon  this  faint  shadow  of  a  communication  with  him."  1 
In  the  preface  Mrs.  Austin  states  that  she  had  intended 
at  first  only  to  translate  Falk ;  then,  upon  the  suggestion 
that  the  persons  mentioned  by  Falk  were  unknown  to  the 
English  public,  she  had  added  explanatory  notes.  Next 
came  the  idea  of  appending  illustrative  specimens  from 
Goethe's  manifold  works  so  that  the  reader  might  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  varied  beauties  of  the  original,  and  in  lan- 
guage that  does  not  make  Goethe  talk  like  an  Englishman. 
According  to  Soret,  "  Goethe's  life  is  in  his  works,"  and 
until  a  qualified  biographer  arises,  Mrs.  Austin  hopes  that 
her  effort  to  make  Goethe  known  to  her  countrymen  will 
prove  welcome  to  those  who  are  prevented  from  studying 
his  works.     After  outlining  briefly  some  of  Goethe's  essen- 

1  Froude,  II,  p.  322. 


England  197 

tial  characteristics,  she  says  that  "  he  was  not  a  partisan. 
He  observed  and  described."  That  he  was  not  indifferent 
to  human  improvement  is  attested  by  his  numerous  works, 
filled  with  maxims  of  most  profound,  earnest,  and  en- 
larged humanity,  and  with  exhortations  to  labor  for  the 
good  of  mankind.  Because  he  had  a  dread  of  violent  po- 
litical convulsions  is  no  just  cause  for  accusing  him  of 
selfish  apathy  and  want  of  patriotism.1  '  His  labors  for 
human  progress  were  unwearied,  calm,  and  systematic." 
Goethe  has  been  called  the  Artist,  and  justly  so,  for  true 
art  is  the  moral  and  beneficent  exposition  of  the  good  and 
the  beautiful.  To  those  who  do  not  understand  Goethe, 
might  be  applied  Coleridge's  profound  conclusion  in  regard 
to  Plato.  "  Therefore,  utterly  baffled  in  all  my  attempts 
to  understand  the  ignorance  of  Plato,  /  conclude  myself 
ignorant  of  his  understanding."  2 

The  appearance  of  this  book  constitutes  a  landmark  in 
the  development  of  Goethean  ideals.  It  was,  as  the  Dublin 
University  Magazine  declared,  "  the  most  valuable  work 
on  German  literature  ever  published  in  England."  3  Like 
Mme.  de  Stael's  De  VAllemagne,  it  serves  as  a  reference 
book  for  quotation  by  all  the  translators  of  Goethe's  works 
and  by  critics  for  the  magazines. 

George  Henry  Lewes,  who  devoted  nearly  ten  years  to 
the  composition  of  his  Life  and  Works  of  Goethe,4"  writes 
in  his  introduction :  "  Nor  can  I  let  this  opportunity  pass 
without  recording  my  debts  to  Mrs.  Austin's  delightful 
work,  Goethe  and  His  Contemporaries,  of  which  Falk's 
Reminiscences  form  the  nucleus.     The  book  was  a  loved 

1  Cf.  Eckermahn,  Mar.  4,  1830. 

2  Biog.  Liter.,  p.  237. 

*  VII,  pp.   1-25,  Jan.,  1836. 
4  2  vols.,  London,  1855. 


198         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

companion  long  before  I  could  read  German ;  and  in  com- 
mon with  many  readers,  I  felt  very  grateful  to  Mrs.  Austin 
for  the  mass  of  details  and  occasional  fine  remark,  with 
which  she  gave  us  glimpses  of  that  distant  world.  The 
book  has  been  of  service  to  me  in  more  than  one  chapter  of 
this  biography."  *  In  the  journals  it  was  widely  reviewed 
and  discussed.2  The  New  Monthly  Magazine  wrote : 3  "  We 
are  indebted  to  the  pen  of  Mrs.  Austin  for  one  of  the 
most  elegant  and  complete  translations  which  ever  enriched 
the  stores  of  the  English  language.  ...  In  Mrs.  Austin's 
translations  there  is  that  singular  felicity  to  which  so  few 
translators  attain ;  her  words  seem  always  at  their  ease. 
You  see  the  genius  of  a  foreign  language,  but  it  does  not 
appear  in  a  rough  or  abrupt  guise — the  stranger  seems  as 
much  at  home  as  if  he  had  lived  with  us  all  his  life." 

From  Carlyle  came,  July  18,  1833,  a  most  laudatory  let- 
ter. He  wrote :  "  A  book  more  honestly  put  together  I 
have  not  met  with  for  many  years.  A  discreet,  gentle 
feminine  tone  runs  through  it,  with  quiet  lookings  neverthe- 
less into  much  that  lies  beyond  the  English  horizon ;  no 
compromise  with  error,  yet  no  over-loud  assertion  of  the 
truth ;  unwearied  inquiry,  faithful  elaboration ;  in  a  word, 
the  thing  done  that  is  pretended  to  be  done ;  what  other 
praise  could  I  wish  to  give  you  ? "  After  declaring  that 
her  work  is  better  than  Falk's  he  continues:  "You  have 
fairly  and  clearly  (and  in  your  case  almost  heroically) 
stated  the  true  principle  of  translation ;  and  what  is  more, 
acted  on  it;  I  hear  the  fine  silver  music  of  Goethe  sound 
through  your  voice,  through  your  heart ;  you  can  actually 

1  P.  vii. 

2Cf.  Amer.  Meth.  Mag.,  XXIII,  p.  500,  1833;  Selec.  Jour.,  II, 
No.  4,  pt.  ii,  p.  289;  N.  Y.  Rev.,  Ill,  p.  19",  1838;  Westm.  R., 
XXIV,  pp.  197-231,  Jan.,  1836. 

3  XXXVIII,  pp.  302-04,  1833,  Art.  signed  A. 


England  199 

translate  Goethe,  which  (quietly  I  reckon)  is  what  hardly 
three  people  in  England  can."  1 

In  addition  to  her  citations  from  Goethe's  works  and 
Mme.  de  Stael's  De  I'Allemagne,  Mrs.  Austin  furnishes 
many  translations  of  Goethe's  lyrics,  and  quotes  the  German 
original. 

Mrs.  Austin's  next  contribution  to  German  thought  was 
a  translation  of  Carove's  charming  Story  Without  an  End, 
which  proved  very  popular,  according  to  reviews  and  new 
editions.2 

She  had  always  been  much  interested  in  public  and 
popular  education.  In  order  to  better  the  condition  of  the 
English  schools,  she  translated  Victor  Cousin's  Report  on 
the"  State  of  Public  Instruction  in  Prussia  and  wrote  an 
excellent  preface,  in  which  she  stated  her  reasons  for  the 
translation.3  Here  she  maintains  the  necessity  of  primary 
instruction ;  i.e.,  of  education  for  the  moral  and  intellectual 
well-being  of  the  masses.  "  Society,"  she  says,  "  is  no 
longer  a  calm  current,  but  a  tossing  sea,  and  reverence  for 
tradition,  for  authority  is  gone."  In  such  a  state  of  change, 
who  can  deny  the  absolute  necessity  of  national  education? 
As  to  compulsory  education,  it  is  a  duty,  for  persons  of  un- 
cultivated minds  are  not  aware  of  the  advantages  of  educa- 
tion to  the  happiness  of  the  individual  and  to  the  welfare  of 
society.  Then  she  discusses  the  objections  raised  against  this 
forced  popular  education,  and  shows  that  compulsory  educa- 

1  Ross,  pp.  77-/8- 

2  1856,  1864,  and  1868. 

8  This  translation  also  appeared  in  an  American  reprint,  but  Mrs. 
Austin's  name  is  not  even  mentioned.  A  digest  of  M.  Victor 
Cousin's  Report  by  J.  Orville  Taylor,  Professor  of  Popular  Educa- 
tion in  New  York  University,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1836,  177  PP-  Preface 
dated  Oct.  25,  1835.  A  comparison  of  the  two  works  shows  that 
this  American  "  translation  "  is  a  mere  condensation  of  Mrs.  Aus- 
tin's version. 


200         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

tion  is  not  a  new  fad  ;  as  it  already  existed  in  the  fifteenth 
century  in  Scotland  for  gentry,  barons,  and  freeholders; 
it  is  not  distinctly  a  Prussian  institution  either;  also  it  is 
not  a  tyrannical  law,  for  parents  have  the  right  of  selecting 
schools  and  masters.  In  replying  to  the  objection  that  it 
is  anti-religious,  Mrs.  Austin  touches  a  point  the  impor- 
tance of  which  is  even  now  not  fully  appreciated  in  America : 
'  To  this  every  page  of  the  book  is  an  answer.  Indeed, 
were  I  to  express  a  fear  on  this  head,  it  is,  that  it  is  far 
too  religious  for  this  country;  that  the  lofty,  unworldly 
tone  of  feeling,  the  spirit  of  veneration,  the  blending  of 
the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  Good  and  the  Beautiful  with 
all  the  practical  business  and  the  amusements  of  life,  is 
what  will  hardly  be  understood  here,  where  religion  is  so 
much  more  disjoined  both  from  the  toils  and  from  the 
gayeties  of  life."  She  also  quotes  Cousin's  appeal  against 
similar  prejudices  in  France.1  "  National  rivalries  or  an- 
tipathies would  here  be  greatly  out  of  place.  The  true 
greatness  of  a  people  does  not  consist  in  borrowing  nothing 
from  others,  but  in  borrowing  from  all  whatever  is  good, 
and  in  perfecting  whatever  it  appropriates."  This  transla- 
tion and  preface  aroused  great  attention  in  England,  and 
Mrs.  Austin  was  complimented  by  many  distinguished 
men. 

During  the  winter  of  1838-39,  besides  collecting  facts  for 
her  work  on  National  Education  (1839),  she  completed 
her  translation  of  Ranke's  Ecclesiastical  and  Political  His- 
tory of  the  Popes  (1840).  A  proof  of  its  great  excellence 
is  that  Macaulay,  when  asked  to  review  the  German  edition, 
borrowed  her  translation  as  an  aid  in  reading  the  German. 
And  referring  to  her  work  he  said  in  his  article :  "  Of  this 
translation  we  need  only  say  that  it  is  such  as  might  be 

1  Report,  p.  292. 


England  201 

expected  from  the  skill,  the  taste,  and  the  scrupulous  in- 
tegrity of  the  accomplished  lady,  who,  as  an  interpreter 
between  the  mind  of  Germany  and  the  mind  of  Britain,  has 
already  deserved  so  well  of  both  countries."  1  Ranke  him- 
self wrote  her  from  Berlin,  October  1839:  "  The  great  care 
with  which  you  have  translated  my  book  gives  me  the 
greatest  pleasure.  I  hear  myself  speak  English  much  bet- 
ter than  I  could  ever  have  learnt  it."  2 

In  1840,  while  in  Carlsbad,  Mrs.  Austin  collected  the 
translations  from  German  writers  which  she  had  previously 
made  for  the  New  Monthly  Magazine,  incorporating  them, 
with  biographical  sketches,  in  a  volume  called  Fragments 
from  German  Prose  Writers.  In  the  preface  she  states 
that  the  increasing  interest  in  German  literature  is  the 
reason  for  this  undertaking,  adding:  "It  has  been  fre- 
quently suggested  to  me  that  a  reprint  of  them,  with  addi- 
tions, in  a  more  convenient  and  durable  form,  would  not 
be  unacceptable  to  the  English  public,  among  whom  a 
curiosity  concerning  the  matter  and  form  of  German  litera- 
ture is  greatly  increased  and  increasing." 

In  this  work  it  may  be  plainly  seen  that  Mrs.  Austin's 
preference  is  for  Goethe,  Richter,  and  Novalis.  While  she 
offers  one  or  two  selections  from  various  authors,  three 
from  Humboldt,  four  each  from  Schiller,  Zelter,  Niebuhr, 
and  Lessing,  six  from  Tieck,  seven  each  from  Fichte  and 
from  Rahel  von  Varnhagen,  she  presents  fifteen  fragments 
from  Novalis,  twenty-three  from  Richter,  and  thirty-two 
from  Goethe.  In  her  biographical  sketch  of  Goethe  she 
writes  that  to  many  people  he  is  only  the  author  of  "  Faust, 
that  untranslatable  poem  which  every  Englishman  trans- 
lates." 3 

1Ed.  R.,  LXXII,  pp.  227-58,  Oct.,  1840. 

2  Ross,  p.  137. 

3  P-  275. 


202         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

As  soon  as  this  work  appeared  in  London,  an  American 
reprint  followed  in  New  York.  Through  the  great  number 
of  favorable  reviews,1  new  interest  in  German  literature 
was  aroused. 

Of  these  varied  criticisms  I  quote  from  one,  not  only  be- 
cause it  shows  Mrs.  Austin's  great  skill  as  a  translator  and 
the  growing  enthusiasm  for  Germanism,  but  also  because 
it  illustrates  my  introductory  statement  of  woman's  peculiar 
efficiency  as  an  international  mediator. 

"  Perhaps  no  other  prose  literature  but  that  of  Greece 
could  have  furnished  the  material  of  a  volume  at  once 
so  wise,  so  bright,  and  so  varied;  and  those  old  Hellenic 
books,  nearer  than  any  modern  can  be  to  the  age  of  primeval 
awe,  and  combining,  as  no  other,  childish  loveliness  with 
mature  thought,  yet  want  some  of  the  nobler,  the  very 
noblest  elements  of  our  Christian  world,  and  the  clear 
complete  knowledge  of  nature  and  history,  which  in  our 
time  we  require,  and  which  the  Germans,  beyond  all  other 
people,  have  realized.  In  truth,  resembling  the  Greeks  far 
more  than  do  the  writers  of  any  other  nation  as  to  eleva- 
tion and  fullness,  they  have  for  us  the  incomparable  merit 
that  they  are  the  children  and  teachers  of  our  own  time.  At 
all  events,  whatever  may  or  may  not  be  the  value  of  German 
literature,  it  is  plain  that  Mrs.  Austin  is,  of  all  English 
persons,  the  one  who  has  best  succeeded  in  making  its 
worth  clear  and  pleasant  to  merely  English  readers.  Mr. 
Carlyle,  with  his  deep  spirit  and  prophetic  originality,  has 
been,  and  will  remain,  the  great  hierophant,  disclosing  to 

1  Lond.  Ath.,  No.  709,  pp.  424-26,  May  29,  1841  ;  For.  Quar.  R., 
XXIX,  pp.  309-29,  Apr.,  1842;  Chris.  Exam.,  XXXI,  pp.  279-80, 
Sept.,  1841 ;  Godey,  XXIII,  p.  296,  Dec,  1841 ;  Mus.  of  For.  Lit. 
and  Science,  XLIII,  p.  483,  1841 ;  Amer.  Eel.  Mag.,  IV,  pp.  415-33, 
Nov.,  1842;  Arcturus,  II,  pp.  127-28,  July,  1841 ;  N.  A.  R.,  LIV, 
pp.  504-06,  Apr.,  1842. 


England  203 

prepared  minds  the  truly  divine  wisdom  of  that  modern 
Holy  Land.  But  it  requires  to  have  something  of  a  '  fore- 
gone conclusion  '  of  Germanism  within  us,  and  much  of  the 
temper  of  a  devout  neophyte  to  receive  the  infinite  benefit 
of  his  teaching.  Mrs.  Austin,  with  the  unpretending  ease 
and  felicity  of  her  soft,  open,  womanly  nature,  interprets 
to  all  like  one  of  themselves,  in  familiar,  though  choice 
language,  whatever  can  be  so  communicated  of  the  Beliefs, 
Images,  and  Feelings,  that  the  highest  hearts  and  most 
creative  geniuses  and  most  sagacious  inquirers  of  modern 
times  have  bestowed  upon  this  world."  x 

Mrs.  Austin  had  a  profound  admiration  for  Goethe's 
Egmont.  She  began  a  translation  of  it,  which  was  un- 
fortunately never  finished.  Of  this  plan  she  wrote  later: 
'  I  had  thought  of  attempting  a  translation  of  the  whole 
play,  and  indeed  have  partly  completed  it,  but  better  judges 
than  I  tell  me  it  will  not  succeed."  2 

When  Mrs.  Austin's  translation  of  Ranke  appeared  in 
1840,  an  intimate  friend,  Sir  Geo.  C.  Lewis,  wrote  to  her 
that  the  publisher  Murray  was  very  desirous  of  her  under- 
taking some  original  work,  and  asked,  "  Do  you  feel  a 
Beruf  of  this  sort?  "  3 

Not  only  did  the  English  express  such  a  desire,  but  even 
the  Germans  themselves.  From  Dresden  Mrs.  Austin  wrote 
March  22,  1842,  to  Mr.  Murray:  "I  am  much  urged  by 
the  Germans  to  write  on  Germany.  This  is  a  high  compli- 
ment from  them,  for  they  are  much  dissatisfied  with  all 
that  has  been  written,  especially  in  France — more  per- 
haps with  the  praise  than  the  censure."  4     And  later  the 

1  For.  Quar.  R.,  XXIX,  pp.  416-17,  Apr.,  1842. 

2  Fragments,  p.  276. 

3  Leslie  Stephen:  Diet,  of  Natl.  Biog.,  II,  p.  271. 

4  Ross,   p.    i6„. 


204         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Athenccum  voices  its  disappointment  by  saying  that  "  We 
have  felt  that  Mrs.  Austin  might,  if  she  so  pleased  it,  take 
up  Germany  at  the  point  where  Mrae.  de  Stael  left  it,  and 
do  this  without  any  risk  of  being  shamed  or  proving  un- 
equal to  her  task.1 

The  reason  why  Mrs.  Austin  did  not  comply  with  all  the 
wishes  expressed  was  due  to  a  natural  timidity,  and  also, 
perhaps,  a  fear  of  not  being  exactly  just.  She  wrote  to 
Gladstone  on  May  27,  1839:  "  I  have  always  shrunk  from 
appearing  before  the  public  in  my  own  person  or  behalf, 
as  the  author  or  champion  of  any  opinions  whatever."  2  In 
the  preface  to  her  Germany  from  1760  to  1814  she  states 
her  preference  for  the  "  welcome  defense  of  inverted 
commas,"  and  her  "  unconquerable  prejudice  in  favor  of 
the  genuine  and  authentic."  To  Mrs.  Grote  she  wrote 
Oct.  25,  1843:  "You  know  my  dislike  to  encounter  the 
public  in  my  own  person,  my  distrust  of  myself,  and  my 
liking  for  steady  respectable  work."  3  Hence  for  "  steady, 
respectable  work,"  she  selects  another  of  Ranke's  books, 
the  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany. 

In  1854  Mrs.  Austin  incorporated  in  book  form  many  of 
the  articles  she  had  written  since  1841,  and  called  the  volume 
Germany  from  1760  to  1814,  or  Sketches  of  German  Life. 
This  work,  consisting  of  four  historical  essays  based  on 
original  researches  in  Bonn,4  presents  in  a  most  lucid  and 

1  Review  of  Germany  from  1760  to  1814,  No.  1393,  PP-  840-43, 
July  8,  1845. 

2  Ross,  p.  134. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  189. 

4  Germany  at  the  Close  of  the  Last  Century,  Dissolution  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  Germany  from  the  Congress  of  Rastadt  to  the 
Battle  of  Jena,  Germany  from  the  Battle  of  Jena  to  the  Expulsion 
of  the  French. 


England  205 

forcible  manner  the  causes  and  events  that  led  to  the 
awakening  of  German  nationalism.  At  the  conclusion  of 
her  last  essay,  Mrs.  Austin  quotes  Perthes's  remark  that 
"  a  race  which  has  so  raised  itself  will  not  sink  again,  but 
will  go  from  strength  to  strength,"  and  she  expresses  her 
hope  that  this  volume  "  will  contribute  to  strengthen  the 
sympathies  of  which  it  is  an  imperfect  expression."  x 

Mrs.  Austin's  last  literary  work  was  the  editing  of  Let- 
ters from  Egypt,  by  Lady  Duff-Gordon.  On  Aug.  8, 
1867,  this  great-hearted  woman,  who  had  labored  so  un- 
tiringly in  the  field  of  German  literature,  passed  away,  the 
last  survivor  of  the  illustrious  family  of  Norwich  Taylors. 
The  Gentleman  s  Magazine,2  in  reviewing  her  life,  work,  and 
influence,  said :  "  The  power  she  exercised  in  society  was 
due  to  the  sterling  qualities  of  her  judgment,  her  knowledge, 
her  literary  style — which  was  one  of  great  purity  and  ex- 
cellence— and,  above  all,  to  her  cordial  readiness  to  promote 
all  good  objects,  to  maintain  high  principles  of  action,  and 
to  confer  benefits  on  all  who  claimed  her  aid." 

Mrs.  Anna  Brozsmell  Murphy  Jameson  (1794-1860) 

According  to  the  North  American  Review,"  "  since  Mme. 
de  Stael  no  more  brilliant  female  writer  had  appeared  in 
European  literature  than  Mrs.  Jameson."  To  her  great 
predecessor,  Mrs.  Jameson  was  indebted  for  her  first  in- 
terest in  German  literature,  and  in  her  various  works  she 
cites  with  love  and  admiration  the  opinions  of  Mme.  de 
Stael  in  De  I'Allemagne.  In  Visits  and  Sketches  at  Home 
and  Abroad,   called    in  a   later   edition   Sketches   of   Art, 

1  Pp.  437-38. 

2  IV,  pp.  395-96,  Sept.,  1867. 
8  LII,  p.  489,  Apr.,  1841. 


206         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Literature,  and  Character,1  the  critic  Medon  and  the  woman 
writer  Alda  are  discussing  the  Germans'  opinion  of  Mme. 
de  Stael's  book.  Alda  says :  "  The  Germans  forget,  or  do 
not  know,  what  we  know,  that  her  De  l'Allemagne  was  the 
first  book  which  awakened  in  France  and  England  a  lively 
and  genuine  interest  in  German  art  and  literature." 

The  content  of  these  Sketches  is  most  varied:  descrip- 
tions of  cities,  Frankfurt-am-Main,  Bonn,  Coblenz,  Ehren- 
breitstein,  Stuttgart,  Miinchen,  Dresden,  Weimar;  legends 
of  places;  anecdotes  of  noted  people, — the  writer  Johanna 
Schopenhauer,  the  critic  Schlegel,  the  sculptor  Dannecker, 
the  romanticist  Tieck,  the  architect  Leo  von  Klenze ;  items 
of  interest  about  art,  fetes,  music,  drama,  history,  and  lit- 
erature, translations  from  German  works,  quotations  from 
Mme.  de  Stael,  Mrs.  Austin,  and  Abraham  Hayward. 
Among  the  sketches  is  one  of  her  friend  for  thirty  years, 
Ottilie  von  Goethe,  who,  in  Goethe's  language,  was  "  eine 
Natur,"  2  or  "  ein  verriickter  Engel."  3 

Mrs.  Jameson's  next  work.  Memoirs  of  the  Loves  of  the 
Poets  (1829),4  bears  on  its  title  page  a  quotation  from  Mme. 
de  Stael.  In  the  preface  she  writes  in  regard  to  her  sub- 
ject: "  I  know,  I  feel  that  it  required  more  extensive  knowl- 
edge of  languages,  more  matured  judgment,  more  critical 
power,  more  eloquence ;  only  Mme.  de  Stael  could  have 
fulfilled  my  conception  of  the  style  in  which  it  ought  to  have 
been  treated."  Among  the  writings  is  one  on  Klopstock 
and  Meta,  with  translations  from  Klopstock's  odes  and  cor- 

1  London,  1826.  With  Tales  and  Miscellanies  and  Diary  of  En- 
nuyee,  2  vols.,  New  York,  1834,  I>  PP-  36-37- 

2  I,  P-  79- 

3  H.  C.  R. :  Diary,  II,  p.  no. 

*  Later  called  Romance  of  Biography. 


England  207 

respondence,  and  quotations  from  Mme.  de  Stael.1  In  just 
praise  of  this  work,  the  American  Monthly  Review  2  wrote : 
"  None  but  a  woman  and  a  woman  of  vigorous  and  culti- 
vated mind  kindled  by  lively  sensibility,  could  have  written 
it.  The  style  is  remarkable  for  nervous  eloquence  and 
brilliancy." 

In  his  edition  of  Faust  (1833),  Hayward  had  written: 
"  I  wish  Mrs.  Jameson  would  devote  a  chapter  in  her  next 
work  to  Goethe's  women.  .  .  .  Much  as  this  lady  has  been 
admired,  she  has  never  yet  been  adequately  spoken  of,  ex- 
cept perhaps  by  a  writer  in  Blackwood's;  nor  has  even  he 
said  all  that  I  could  wish  to  say  or  have  said,  of  her  earnest 
truth  of  feeling,  her  passionate  intensity  of  thought,  her 
fine  discrimination  of  character  and  daring  felicity  of  ex- 
pression." 3  This  wish  was  to  a  slight  extent  fulfilled  in 
her  next  work.  In  1838  Mrs.  Jameson  published  Winter 
Studies  and  Summer  Rambles  in  Canada.  Dr.  Channing 
wrote :  "  I  do  not  know  a  writer  whose  works  breathe  more 
of  the  spontaneous, — the  free.  Beauty  and  truth  seem  to 
come  to  her  unsought."  The  first  volume  of  the  Winter 
Studies  was  later  published  as  Studies,  Stories  and 
Memoirs  (Boston,  1864).  In  it  are  included  twenty  sketches 
on  German  Life  and  Literature,  among  which  are  German 
Actresses,  Goethe's  Tasso,  Iphigenie,  and  Clavigo,  Music 
and  Musicians,  Goethe  and  Eckermann,  Goethe's  Last  Love, 
Goethe's  Table-Talk,  Schiller,  Hoffmann,  Riickert,  Grill- 
parzer,  Sappho,  Medea,  and  Don  Carlos.  Nearly  half  of 
these  sketches  deal  with  Goethe. 

Of  Goethe's  dramas  Mrs.  Jameson  writes :  "  Iphigenie  is 

1  Pp.  369-88.  This  article  inspired  a  similar  one  in  the  Dial,  I, 
pp.  293-98,  Jan.,  1841. 

2  III,  pp.  384-99,  May,  1833. 
8  P.  268. 


208         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

all  repose,  Tasso  all  emotion,  Egmont  all  action  and  passion. 
Iphigenie  rests  upon  the  grace  and  grandeur  of  form — it  is 
statuesque  throughout.  Tasso  is  the  strife  between  the 
poetic  and  prosaic  nature.  Egmont  is  the  working  of  the 
real ;  all  here  is  palpable,  practical,  even  love  itself."  x 

"  Goethe's  portraits  of  individual  women  are  true  as 
truth  itself !  His  only  heroic  character  is  Iphigenie,  who 
represents  the  triumph  of  unsullied,  unflinching  truth.  It 
has  been  said  that  Goethe  intended  this  character  as  a 
portrait  of  the  Grand  Duchess  Louise  of  Weimar.  The 
intention  of  the  poet  remains  doubtful ;  but  it  should  seem 
from  the  first  moment  the  resemblance  was  generally 
admitted."  2 

Referring  to  Mine,  de  Stael's  work  on  Germany  and  to 
the  great  changes  that  had  taken  place  in  that  country 
in  such  a  brief  time,  Mrs.  Jameson  writes :  "  When  in  Ger- 
many, I  was  accustomed  to  hear  Mme.  de  Stael's  De 
l'Allemagne  mentioned,  if  mentioned  at  all,  with  something 
worse  than  contempt,  either  as  '  forgotten  or  out  of  date.'  " 
But  great  changes  in  opinion  have  occurred  since  1807  when 
Sir  Jas.  Mackintosh  wrote  of  Germany  as  a  "  terra 
incognita."  Speaking  of  the  modern  writers  who  might 
survive  the  test  of  time,  she  said :  "  I  comprehend  even 
Goethe  and  Schiller  within  the  pale ;  though  I  know  that 
few,  either  in  France  or  England,  agree  with  me,  I  have 
recourse  to  the  usual  consolation  of  singularity,  that  my 
opinion  will  be  more  prevalent  when  I  am  myself  forgotten." 
And  then  Mrs.  Jameson  concludes :  "  Mme.  de  Stael  first 
made  a  breach,  through  what  Goethe  himself  called  a 
'  Chinese  wall  of  prejudices,'  and  we  may  pass  through 

1  P.  26. 

2  Pp.  29-30. 


England  209 

it  surely  without  trampling  upon  her  who  had  courage  to 
open  the  way  for  us."  ' 

Of  the  great  Germans  who  have  worked  for  human 
progress,  she  writes :  "  Great  and  worthy  of  all  gratitude 
and  fame  were  those  men  who  have  devoted  their  best 
faculties,  poured  out  their  best  blood,  for  the  cause  of 
freedom,  for  the  land  they  called  their  own,  the  principles 
they  espoused ;  but  greater  far,  and  more  worthy  of  grati- 
tude, and  of  purer  and  more  enduring  fame,  the  very  few, 
who  lived  not  for  an  age,  a  country,  but  for  all  ages — for 
all  mankind ;  who  did  not  live  to  preach  this  or  that  theory, 
to  sustain  this  or  that  sect  or  party,  to  insist  on  this  or 
that  truth,  but  who  lived  to  work  out  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  good,  and  promote  the  progress  of  the  whole 
human  race — to  kindle  within  the  individual  mind  the  light 
which  is  true  freedom,  or  leads  to  it.  Such  was  the  example 
left  by  Jesus  Christ — such  a  man  was  Shakespeare — such 
a  man  was  Goethe."  2 

Up  to  this  time  Mrs.  Jameson's  work  for  the  cause  of 
Germanism  had  been  somewhat  desultory,  in  the  form  of 
short  essays  and  sketches ;  now  she  was  to  show  her  ability 
as  a  mediator  between  Germany  and  England.  This  task 
she  achieved  through  her  Social  Life  in  Germany,  as  re- 
flected in  the  acted  dramas  of  Her  Royal  Highness  the 
Duchess  Amelia  of  Saxony* 

From  all  critics  this  work  received  just  praise  and  a  sym- 
pathetic reception.  A  reviewer  in  the  Living  Age  4  wrote 
that  the  translations  were  "  rendered  with  spirit  and  grace, 

1  Pp.  84-85. 
■  Pp.  96-97. 

3  Translated  from  the  German,  with  an  introduction  and  notes, 
explanatory  of  the  German  language  and  manners.  2  vols.,  Lon- 
don, 1840. 

4  LX,  p.  147. 


210         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

and  commented  on  with  unfailing  tact  and  intelligence." 
"  Mrs.  Jameson  stands  unsurpassed  among  the  literary 
women  of  England  for  critical  culture;  for  instinctive 
accuracy  of  taste  and  ability  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith 
that  is  in  her,  with  elegance  and  precision  of  language."  1 

As  early  as  1833  Hay  ward  had  written:2  "It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  little  or  nothing  is  known  in  England  of 
the  present  state  of  painting,  sculpture,  and  engraving  in 
Germany.  .  .  .  Were  I  now  called  on  to  name  the  writer 
best  qualified  to  supply  the  deficiency,  I  should  name  the 
author  of  the  Diary  of  an  Ennuyce,  who  has  manifested  the 
most  singular  power  of  making  paintings  and  statues  speak 
to  the  imagination  and  understanding  through  books." 
Hayward's  wish  was  destined  soon  to  be  fulfilled.  With 
Mrs.  Jameson  as  an  art  critic,  a  new  line  of  thought  was 
opened  to  English  minds.  She  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  this 
work.  The  daughter  of  Mr.  Murphy,  who  made  the  ex- 
quisite set  of  miniatures,  Beauties  of  the  Court  of  Charles 
II.,  Mrs.  Jameson  inherited  her  father's  talent.  Well  versed 
in  the  English,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  German  lan- 
guages and  literatures,  Mrs.  Jameson  brought  to  her  work 
a  first-hand  knowledge  of  facts  and  a  broad  cosmopolitan 
spirit. 

As  early  as  1834  Mrs.  Jameson  had  written  the  introduc- 
tory sketch  and  descriptions  in  English,  French,  and  Ger- 
man for  Moritz  Retzsch's  series  of  engravings,  called 
Fantasien.  Two  years  later  she  furnished  a  similar  preface 
for  the  Collection  of  Pictures  of  W.  G.  Coesvelt  of 
London. 

Her  last  published  work  was  A  Commonplace  Book  of 

1  Cf.  N.  A.  R.,  LII,  p.  489,  Apr.,  1841,  and  Chris.  Exam.,  XXIX, 
pp.  250-51,  Nov.,  1840. 

2  Edition  of  Faust,  note,  p.  350. 


England  211 

Thoughts,  Memories,  and  Fancies.1  It  is  divided  into  two 
parts :  "  Ethics  and  Character ;  Literature  and  Art."  As 
its  title  indicates,  it  is  a  series  of  fragments,  full  of  pregnant 
thought  and  interest.  Among  them  are  criticisms  on  Wer- 
ther,  Childe  Harold,  Tieck,  Coleridge,  Niebuhr,  Goethe's 
Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Mozart,  and  Chopin. 

As  an  eloquent  and  discriminating  critic  of  art,  morals, 
and  literature,  as  a  translator  of  German  writings,  and  as 
a  worker  in  social  science,  Mrs.  Jameson's  whole  life  was 
the  active  realization  of  the  divinity  and  happiness  of  service 
to  others — of  the  philosophy  of  Faust. 

Mrs.  Felicia  Dorothea  Browne  Hemans  (1793-1835) 

'  The  third  member  of  this  illustrious  trio  was  Mrs. 
Hemans.  Of  Irish,  German,  and  Italian  descent,2  and 
reared  amid  the  romantic  scenery  of  Bronwylfa,  Wales, 
Mrs.  Hemans  had  a  precocious  mind  and  sensitive,  ethereal 
purity  of  feeling.  Endowed  with  a  vivid  perception,  a 
correct  eye,  and  a  strong  taste  for  drawing,  Mrs.  Hemans 
might  have  been  an  able  artist.  Her  sketches  from  nature 
were  executed  with  great  skill  and  rapidity ;  and  this  talent 
was  used  in  her  poetical  works  in  establishing  a  clear  and 
harmonious  relation  between  man  and  nature.  To  her  and 
to  Wordsworth  belongs  the  credit  of  popularizing  the  inti- 
mate study  of  idyllic  nature  scenes.  As  early  as  1809  Mrs. 
Hemans  had  read  some  German ;  but  it  was  not  until  several 
years  later  that  she  began  the  serious  study  of  its  literature 
and  philosophy,  and  felt  the  full  significance  of  its  soul  and 

'London,  1854;  New  York,  1855. 

'  Her  mother  was  a  Wagner,  the  daughter  of  the  Imperial  Aus- 
trian and  Tuscan  consul  at  Liverpool;  her  father  was  an  Irish 
merchant. 


212         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

spirit.  This  increased  interest  was  undoubtedly  due  to 
Mme.  de  Stael's  De  l'Allemagne,  for  according  to  W.  M. 
Rossetti,1  "  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Mme.  de  Stael  were  among 
the  writers  she  was  in  the  habit  of  quoting.  Moreover,  if 
the  reader  will  examine  the  quotations  prefixed  to  her 
poems,  he  will  find  that  these  writers,  including  Goethe  and 
Schiller,  have,  more  often  than  any  other  poet,  inspired 
her  lyrics.  Then,  too,  Mrs.  Hemans  was  a  great  admirer 
of  Mme.  de  Stael's  Corinne,  and  in  her  life  and  character 
she  was  a  true  British  Corinne,  or  as  Eric  Robertson  calls 
her,  an  "  English  Sappho."  2  It  will  be  remembered,  too, 
that  Mme.  de  Stael  wrote  a  drama  Sappho  and  that  Corinne, 
and  perhaps  this  drama,  influenced  Grillparzer  in  his  com- 
position of  his  Sappho3  (1817). 

In  Mrs.  Hemans's  National  Lyrics  and  Songs  for  Music 
(1834)  appears  a  lyric,  Corinne  at  the  Capitol.  To  a  friend 
she  wrote  about  the  latter  poem :  "  You  will  see  that  all 
the  beauty  and  loftiness  of  the  thoughts  belong  to  Mme.  de 
Stael.  That  book,  in  particular  toward  its  close,  has  a 
power  over  me  which  is  quite  indescribable ;  some  passages 
seem  to  give  me  back  my  own  thoughts  and  feelings,  my 
whole  inner  being,  with  a  mirror,  more  true  than  ever 
friend  could  hold  up."  4 

After  Mrs.  Hemans  began  the  earnest  study  of  German, 
a  revolution  took  place  in  her  manner  of  thinking  and 
writing.  One  of  her  friends,  Mrs.  Howitt,  wrote :  "  From 
the  hour  of  Mrs.  Hemans's  acquaintance  with  the  German 

1  Introduction  to  her  Poems,  p.  xvi. 

2  English  Poetesses,  London,   1883,  p.   182. 

3  Cf.  Byron's  Journal,  Jan.  12,  1821  :  "  Grillparzer  is  grand — 
antique — not  so  simple  as  the  ancients,  but  very  simple  for  a 
modern — too  Madame  de  Stael-ish  now  and  then, — but  altogether  a 
great  and  goodly  writer." 

4  Chorley,  I,  pp.  295-96. 


England  213 

literature,  you  perceive  that  she  has  discovered  her  own 
forte,  and  a  new  life  of  tenderness  and  feeling  was  mani- 
fested in  all  she  wrote.  She  became  an  almost  constant 
writer  in  Blackwood's  and  Colburris  Magazines.  Schiller, 
Goethe,  Korner,  and  Tieck — how  sensibly  is  the  influence 
of  their  spirit  felt  in  the  Forest  Sanctuary!  how  different 
was  the  tone  of  this  to  all  which  had  gone  before.  The 
cold,  classical  model  was  abandoned;  the  heart  and  the 
fancy  spoke  out  in  every  line,  warm,  free,  solemn,  and 
tenderly  thoughtful."  * 

Mrs.  Hemans  herself  declared  that  it  had  "  opened  to 
her  a  new  world  of  thought  and  feeling,  so  that  even  the 
music  of  the  Eichenland,  as  Korner  calls  it,  seemed  to 
acquire  a  deeper  tone,  when  she  had  gained  a  familiarity 
with  its  noble  poetry."  2 

Another  circumstance  facilitated  Mrs.  Hemans's  ac- 
quaintance with  German  literature.  Her  eldest  brother 
was  connected  with  the  embassy  at  Vienna,  and  he  fur- 
nished her  with  ample  supplies  of  new  books  in  the  German 
language.3  At  first  she  preferred  Schiller  to  Goethe,  but 
in  later  life  Goethe's  works  were  ever  with  her.  Wallen- 
stein  was  a  special  favorite ;  Thekla  and  Max  she  con- 
sidered her  great  friends.4  Through  the  inspiration  of 
Herder's  Stimmen  der  Volker  arose  her  Lays  of  Many 
Lands   (1825).     She  delighted  in  Burger,  Richter,  Tieck, 

1  Homes  and  Haunts  of  the  Most  Eminent  British  Poets.  Cf. 
Poetical  Works,  new  ed.,  Boston,  1853.  Memoir  by  Mrs.  L.  H. 
Sigourney,  p.  30.  Cf.  Poetical  Works  of  Mrs.  Hemans,  in  one 
volume,  with  critical  preface  and  biographical  memoir,  Philadelphia, 
1854,  p.  22. 

2  Works,  with  memoir  by  her  sister,  Mrs.  Hughes,-  and  essay  on 
her  genius  by  Mrs.  Lydia  H.  Sigourney,  of  Hartford,  Conn.  7  vols., 
Philadelphia,  1844,  I,  p.  40. 

3  Cf.  Chorley,  I,  p.  117. 

4  See  poems :  Thekla' s  Song,  Thekla  at  Her  Lover's  Grave. 


214        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

and  Novalis.  Tieck's  Phantasien  and  Sternbalds  Wan- 
derungen,  Oehlenschlager's  Correggio,  Goethe's  Iphigenie, 
and  Grillparzer's  Sappho  found  in  her  a  sympathetic  reader. 
Korner  was,  perhaps,  her  ideal  poet  in  life  and  writings. 
His  love  for  his  only  sister  seemed  to  her  a  sacred  con- 
secration. It  reminded  her  of  her  affection  for  her  favorite 
brother  and  dear  playmate,  Claude  *Scott  Browne,  who 
died  in  1821  in  Kingston,  Canada,  where  he  held  a  govern- 
ment position.  Her  poem,  Korner  and  his  Sister,  was  sent 
to  the  poet's  father,  and  later  translated  into  German.  When 
C.  F.  Richardson  rendered  Korner 's  Life  into  English 
(1827),  he  sent  a  copy  with  a  dedicatory  sonnet  to  Mrs. 
Hemans.  In  acknowledging  it,  she  wrote,  July  25 :  "  Kor- 
ner has  ever  been  an  object  of  peculiar  enthusiasm  to  me; 
his  character  is  one  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  read  with- 
out a  feeling  almost  of  pain  that  such  a  spirit  has  passed 
away,  with  all  its  high  and  holy  thoughts,  and  is  never  to 
be  known  to  us  on  this  side  of  the  grave."  *  Through 
Richardson  she  received  a  message  from  Korner's  father 
wherein  he  spoke  of  his  son's  "  death-day."  This  idea 
struck  her  imagination  very  forcibly  and  gave  rise  to  her 
poem,  The  Grave  of  Korner,  which  was  also  sent  to  the 
father.  In  return  came  a  poetical  message  from  "  Theodor 
Korner's  Father,"  which  Mrs.  Hemans  prized  for  its 
"  treuherzige  simplicity."  This  poem  was  translated  by 
W.  B.  Chorley  in  his  volume,  The  Lyre  and  Sword  (1834). 
Since  1823  Mrs.  Hemans  had  contributed  to  the  New 
Monthly  Magazine,  edited  by  the  poet  Campbell.  In  1833 
she  contemplated  for  it  a  series  of  German  studies,  illus- 
trated by  translations.  The  only  paper,  however,  that  was 
completed  was  the  one  on  Goethe's   Tasso.2     This  essay 

1  Chorley,  I,  pp.   119-20. 

''New  Mon.  Mag.,  XL,  pp.   1-8,  Jan.,   1834. 


England  215 

shows  her  feeling  of  the  high  and  sacred  mission  of  the 
poet,  and  the  analogy  between  the  outer  world  of  nature 
and  the  inner  world  of  the  heart. 

As  an  example  of  Mrs.  Hemans's  skill  as  a  translator,  I 
quote  the  reply  of  Princess  Leonora  d'Este  to  Tasso's  wish 
for  the  return  of  the  Golden  Age. 

"  When  earth  has  men  to  reverence  female  hearts, 
To  know  the  treasures  of  rich  truth  and  love, 
Set  deep  within  a  high-soul'd  woman's  breast; 
When  the  remembrance  of  our  summer  prime, 
Keeps  brightly  in  man's  heart  a  holy  place; 
When  the  keen  glance  that  pierces  through  so  much 
Looks  also  tenderly  through  that  dim  veil 
By  time  or  sickness  hung  round  drooping  forms ; 
When  the  possession,  stifling  every  wish, 
Draws  not  desire  away  to  other  wealth — 
A  brighter  dayspring  then  for  us  may  dawn, 
Then  may  we  solemnize  our  golden  age." 

Mrs.  Hemans  translated  from  Goethe  Mignon's  song 
and  selections  from  Tasso  and  Iphigenie.  That  she  was 
deeply  interested  also  in  Faust  goes  without  saying.  In 
1823  she  wrote  to  a  friend  from  Bronwylfa:  "I  shall  be 
curious  to  see  Lord  Govver's  translation  of  Faust.  It  is  a 
bold  undertaking:  that  play  has  always  appeared  to  me 
one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  German  language ;  some  of 
the  scenes  are  so  bewildering  as  to  leave  the  author's  views 
and  intentions  a  complete  mystery.1  When  Hay  ward's 
version  of  Faust  appeared,  she  declared  that  he  had  too 
much  of  a  Mephistopheles  spirit  about  himself  to  enter 
fully  into  the  spirit  of  Faust,  and  that  it  was  very  un- 
gracious in  him  to  heap  up  the  blunders  of  others  in  order 
to  raise  himself.2 

1  Chorley,    I,   p.    101. 

2  Ibid.,  II,  p.  271. 


216         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

While  living  at  Dove  Nest,  near  Wordsworth's  home 
(1830-31),  she  wrote  to  a  friend,  asking  for  a  copy  of 
Schiller :  "  Mr.  Wordsworth  wants  to  read  a  little  of  Schil- 
ler with  me,  and  he  is  not  to  be  had  at  Ambleside."  1     And 

a   later  letter  reads:    'Will   you  tell  ,   with  my  best 

remembrance,  that  Mr.  Wordsworth  thinks  he  shall  be  quite 
able  to  read  the  small  edition  of  Schiller:  he  is  now  gone 
for  a  few  days  to  his  friend  Lord  Lowther's,  but  I  hope,  on 
his  return,  to  read  with  him  some  of  my  own  first  loves 
in  Schiller,  The  Song  of  the  Bell,  Cassandra,  or  Thekla's 
Spirit-Voice,  with  none  of  which  he  is  acquainted.  Indeed, 
I  think  he  is  inclined  to  undervalue  German  literature  from 
not  knowing  its  best  and  purest  masterpieces.  '  Goethe's 
writings  cannot  live,'  he  one  day  said  to  me,  '  because  they 
are  not  holy.'  I  found  that  he  had  unfortunately  adopted 
this  opinion  from  an  attempt  to  read  Wilhelm  Meister, 
which  had  inspired  him  with  irrepressible  disgust.  How- 
ever, I  shall  try  to  bring  him  into  a  better  way  of  thinking, 
if  only  out  of  my  own  deep  love  for  what  has  been  to  me 
a  source  of  intellectual  joy  so  cheerful  and  elevating." 2 
To  show  to  Goethe  her  appreciation  of  his  works,  Mrs. 
Hemans  some  months  before  his  death  collected  the  best 
of  her  poems  to  send  to  him.  Unfortunately,  chance  pre- 
vented them  reaching  their  destination.3 

Thomas  Carlyle  (1795-1881) 

While  a  student  at  Edinburgh,  Carlyle  was  an  eager 
reader  of  De  l'Allemagne.  A  critic  in  the  Grenz- 
boten  4  remarks :  "  That  this  very  book  inspired  in  him  a  re- 

1  Chorley,   II,    124. 

2  Ibid.,  II,  pp.  129-30. 

3  Ibid.,   II,   pp.    145-46. 

*  C.  F.  L. :    Leipzig,  1869,  28  Jahrgang,  II  Semester,  Bd.  1,  p.  295. 


England  217 

spectful  curiosity  to  become  acquainted  with  the  literary 
treasures  of  the  Germans,  the  same  people  who  had  so  man- 
fully freed  themselves  from  the  French,  that  it  was  the 
cause  of  his  studying  German  most  diligently ;  this  I  know 
from  Carlyle's  own  mouth." 

Likewise  Norton  says :  "  For  ten  years  he  had  been  en- 
gaged in  constant  and  severe  spiritual  wrestlings ;  his  soul, 
begirt  by  doubts,  was  painfully  struggling  to  be  free.  The 
predominant  tendencies  of  contemporary  English  thought 
were  hateful  to  him ;  philosophy  in  its  true  sense  was  all  but 
extinct  in  England,  the  standard  of  ideal  aims  was  hardly 
held  high  by  any  one  of  the  popular  writers.  Carlyle,  who 
had  laid  aside  the  creed  of  his  fathers,  and  depended  for 
guidance  only  upon  the  strength  of  his  own  moral  principles, 
was  adrift  without  other  chart  or  compass.1 

'  It  was  in  this  condition,  perplexed  and  baffled  as  to  his 
true  path,  that  Carlyle  fell  in  with  Mme.  de  StaeTs  famous 
book  on  Germany.  His  interest  was  aroused  by  it.  From 
her  .  .  .  accounts  of  the  speculations  of  the  living  German 
Poets  and  Philosophers,  he  learned  to  look  towards  Ger- 
many for  a  spiritual  light  that  he  had  not  found  in  the 
modern  French  and  English  writers.  He  became  eager  to 
study  German,  that  he  might  investigate  for  himself." 

His  first  reading  in  German  was  a  stupid  play  by 
Kotzebue,  then  the  History  of  Frederick  the  Great,  and 
Archenholz's  Seven  Years'  War. 

The  next  year,  1820,  while  at  home  with  his  parents,  he 
met  a  former  friend,  Robert  Jardine,  who  had  been  at 
Gottingen.  Carlyle,  who  was  a  good  French  scholar,  gave 
Jardine  French  instruction  in  return  for  German  lessons. 
Through  a  Mr.  Swann  he  obtained  copies  of  Schiller's 
works.     Goethe's  books  he  procured  later  from  the  library 

1  Correspondence  of  Goethe  with  Carlyle.  pp.  7-8. 


218        Madame  de  Stael's  "De  l'Allemagne  " 

of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  At  first  he  was  more 
attracted  by  Schiller  than  by  Goethe,  as  Schiller  seemed  to 
him  to  possess  in  the  highest  degree  all  good  qualities.  He 
wanted  to  translate  his  works  for  his  countrymen,  but  all 
correspondence  to  this  purpose  with  London  booksellers 
proved  futile.  After  the  perusal  of  Schiller  he  devoted 
all  his  energies  to  the  study  of  Goethe.  In  his  Reminiscences 
he  acknowledges  the  great  debt  he  owes  him.  From  him 
he  learned  to  conquer  his  scepticism  and  soul-rending 
doubts  and  to  battle  bravely  with  severe  fate  and  a  ma- 
terialistic age.  As  Robinson  has  it,  "  But  for  him,  Carlyle 
says,  he  should  not  now  be*  alive.  He  owes  everything  to 
him."  * 

In  1820  there  were  printed  in  London  twenty-six  engrav- 
ings by  Henry  Moses,  based  on  Moritz  Retzsch's  outlines 
to  Faust.  Accompanying  them  was  an  analysis  of  the 
tragedy.  The  next  year  appeared  a  new  edition  with  a 
more  careful  abstract  interspersed  with  short  translations. 
In  righteous  indignation  at  the  disfigurement  of  this  great 
German  drama,  in  the  analysis,  Carlyle  determined  to  write 
a  Faust  article  for  the  New  Edinburgh  Review.  The  essay 
was  finished  in  the  fall  of  1821,  but  did  not  appear  in  print 
until  the  following  April.  As  it  is  not  included  in  the  gen- 
eral edition  of  the  Scotchman's  works,  I  give  a  full  synopsis, 
because  it  is  of  great  value  as  showing  his  early   feeling 

1  Diary,  II,  p.  168.  Cf.  Carlyle's  letter  to  Goethe,  Apr.  15,  1827: 
"  If  I  have  been  delivered  from  darkness  into  any  measure  of  light, 
if  I  know  aught  of  myself  and  my  duties  and  my  destination,  it  is 
to  the  study  of  your  writings  more  than  to  any  other  circumstance 
that  I  should  always  thank  and  reverence  with  the  feeling  of 
a  Disciple  to  his  Master— nay,  of  a  Son  to  his  spiritual  Father. 
This  is  no  idle  compliment,  but  a  heartfelt  truth."  Cf.  Carlyle's 
words :  "  I  never  cease  to  thank  Heaven  for  such  men  as  Richter, 
Schiller,  Goethe.  The  latter  especially  was  my  evangelist.' 
Froude,  269. 


England  219 

toward  German  literature,  and  is  moreover  a  milestone  in 
his  philosophical  development.1 

'  We  have  felt  mortified  at  seeing  the  bright  aerial  crea- 
tions of  Goethe  metamorphosed  into  such  a  stagnant,  vapid 
caput  mortuum :  and  we  cannot  forbear  to  caution  our 
readers  against  forming  any  judgment  of  that  great  for- 
eigner from  his  present  representative ;  or  imagining  that 
Faustus  affords  even  the  faintest  idea  of  the  celebrated 
drama,  the  name  of  which  it  bears." 

"  Goethe,"  he  adds,  "  is  likely  to  figure  in  after  ages, 
as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  characters  of  this  time; 
and  posterity  will  derive  from  this  tragedy  their  most  lively 
impressions,  both  of  his  peculiar  excellencies  and  defects. 
Faust  was  conceived  while  its  author  was  passing  from 
youth  to  settled  manhood, — a  period  of  inquietude  in  every 
life, — frequently,  as  in  his  case,  of  a  darkness  and  despond- 
ency but  too  well  suited  to  furnish  ideas  for  such  a  work. 
It  was  executed  when  long  culture  and  varied  experience 
had  ripened  his  powers ;  and  under  a  splendor  of  reputation 
which  admitted  the  most  confident,  even  careless  execution 
of  them:  its  object  is  to  delineate  whatever  is  wildest  and 
most  mysterious  in  the  heart  and  the  intellect  of  man,  and 
its  chief  materials  are  drawn  from  the  heart  and  the  intel- 
lect of  the  writer.  In  perusing  it,  accordingly,  we  seem  to 
behold  the  troubled  chaos  of  his  own  early  woes,  and 
doubts  and  wanderings, — illuminated  in  part,  and  reduced 
to  form  by  succeeding  speculations  of  a  calmer  nature, — 
and  portrayed  by  a  finished  master,  in  all  its  original  vivid- 
ness, without  its  original  disorder.  In  studying  the  scenes 
of  Faust,  we  incessantly  discover  marks  of  that  singular 
union    of    enthusiasm    with    derision ;    of    volatility    with 

'See  Herrig's  Archiv,   XCVI,  pp.  241-68,   1896;   Thos.   Carlyles 
Abhandlung  iibcr  den  Goetheschen  Faust,  von  Richard  Schroder. 


220         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

strength  and  fervor ;  of  impetuous  passion,  now  breaking 
out  in  fiery  indignation,  now  in  melting  tenderness,  now  in 
withering  sarcasm,  with  an  overflowing  gayety,  not  only 
sportive  and  full  of  the  richest  humor,  but  grotesque  to  the 
very  borders  of  absurdity,  or  beyond  them, — which  appears 
to  belong  exclusively  to  Goethe.  In  Faust,  too,  we  trace 
the  subtle  and  restless  undertaking,  which,  at  one  period  or 
another  of  its  history,  has  penetrated  into  almost  every 
subject  of  human  thought;  the  sparkling  fancy,  and  as  a 
necessary  consequence,  the  boundless  command  of  language 
and  allusion,  to  clothe  and  illustrate,  as  if  by  enchantment, 
all  the  conceptions  of  a  most  capricious,  though  lofty  and 
powerful  imagination." 

On  account  of  the  exquisite  qualities  of  his  poetry, 
Goethe  is  placed  at  the  head  of  German  poets  and  possesses 
a  literary  aristocracy  that  cannot  be  compared  to  anything 
in  England.  Carlyle  admits  the  lack  of  unity  in  his  Faust, 
that  it  is  not  suitable  for  theatrical  representation,  for 
Goethe  aims  not  only  to  depict  the  fortunes  and  the  feelings 
of  his  characters,  but  also  to  give  "  a  vague  emblem  of  the 
great  vortex  of  human  life." 

After  the  analysis  of  the  plot  and  characters,  Carlyle 
calls  the  work  "  one  of  the  most  singular  that  have  ever 
appeared  in  Europe,"  and  declares  he  cannot  classify  it  at 
all.  As  a  drama,  it  has  many  faults  and  too  little  plot, 
though  it  has  powerful  scenes  and  tragic  situations.  The 
most  striking  peculiarity,  however,  is  its  wonderful  versa- 
tility— the  wicked  and  malignant  scorn  of  Mephistopheles, 
the  naive  innocence  of  Margaret,  the  chaotic  revelry  of  the 
Brocken,  the  impetuous  enthusiasm  of  Faust,  presuppose 
a  union  of  poetic  and  philosophical  powers  rarely  met  with 
in  human  history. 

'  It  is  to  the  character  of  Faust,  however,  as  displayed 


England  221 

in  the  opening  scenes  of  the  play  that  we  turn  for  the 
highest  proof  of  Goethe's  genius.  They  give  us  the  most 
vivid  picture  we  have  ever  seen  of  a  species  of  mental  con- 
vulsion, at  once  in  the  extreme  degree,  moving  and  diffi- 
cult to  paint.  It  is  the  destruction  of  a  noble  spirit  by  the 
force  of  its  own  thoughts,  a  suicide  of  the  mind  far  more 
tragic  than  that  of  the  body.  Faust  interests  us  deeply  at 
first ;  he  is  at  the  utmost  pitch  of  misery,  and  has  no  feeling 
of  self-accusation ;  he  possesses  all  the  grandest  attributes 
of  our  nature,  and  has  meant  to  use  them  well.  His  fault 
seems  but  the  want  of  worldly  wisdom,  and  the  lofty, 
though  unhappy,  constitution  of  his  mind ;  he  has  been  born 
with  the  head  of  a  sceptic  and  the  heart  of  a  devotee ;  in 
grasping  at  the  sublime,  he  has  lost  even  the  useful ;  when 
his  earthly  hopes  are  all  blasted,  no  moral  consolation  is  in 
store  for  him ;  he  has  not  an  object,  and  yet  he  has  no  rest. 
The  sleepless  agitation,  the  arid  tearless  wretchedness, 
natural  to  a  human  being  so  situated,  have  been  delineated 
by  Goethe  with  a  beauty  and  verisimilitude,  to  which  there 
are  few  parallels,  even  in  easier  subjects." 

Carlyle  declares  that  Faust  and  Mephistopheles  represent 
two  propensities  in  human  nature.  Faust's  criminality 
began  when  he  allowed  himself  to  doubt  the  existence  of 
a  Providence  and  the  necessity  of  moral  distinctions.  In 
his  conclusion,  Carlyle  refers  to  the  controversy  over  Faust 
and  Manfred,  and  while  acknowledging  Byron's  indebted- 
ness to  Goethe,  insists  that  the  former  is  by  no  means  a 
copyist. 

Perhaps  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  in  this  connec- 
tion that  some  years  later  Carlyle  was  urged  by  Eckermann 
to   translate  Faust.1     After  finishing  his   Sartor  Resartus 

1  Letter  of  Dec.  6,  1830:  "To  be  sure  it  does  not  become  me  to 
suggest  to  you,  that  were  I  in  your  place,  I  would  surely  be  doing 


222         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Carlyle  did  actually  think  of  translating  this  drama  and 
also  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  but  unfortunately  he  never 
carried  out  his  intention. 

In  1822  Carlyle  undertook  to  write  for  the  London 
Magazine  a  series  of  essays  on  great  men.  His  first  selec- 
tion was  Schiller.  The  following  year  these  essays  on 
Schiller's  life  appeared  in  several  numbers  of  the  maga- 
zine, and  later  were  collected  and  published  in  book  form 
(1825).  This  work,  although  the  first  biography  of  a 
German  by  a  Briton,  received  little  attention  from  the  pub- 
lic. Carlyle,  conscious  of  his  difficulties,  had,  nevertheless, 
aimed  to  give  a  general  representation  of  the  main  char- 
acters of  his  hero.  And  with  such  keen  intuition  does 
he  speak  of  German  conditions  and  German  literature, 
of  Schiller's  position  and  significance,  of  his  relation  to 
Goethe,  that  the  work  bears  the  impression  of  independent 
investigation  and  judgment.  Later,  when  a  copy  was  sent 
to  Goethe,  the  great  German  reviewed  it  in  Kunst  und 
Altertum. 

"  It  is  indeed  worthy  of  admiration,"  he  says,  "  to  see 
how  the  author  has  gained  a  sufficient  insight  into  the 
character  and  great  service  of  this  man,  an  insight  so 
clear  and  just,  as  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  from  a 
foreigner. 

"  However,  an  old  adage  is  verified  here :  A  good-will 
helps  to  acquire  perfect  knowledge.    For  just  this  fact,  that 

something  worthy  for  my  nation  by  devoting  for  some  years  my 
best  leisure  hours  to  the  faithful  translation  of  Faust.  The  selec- 
tions of  your  Helena  have  shown  sufficiently  that  you  not  only 
understand  the  German  original  perfectly,  but  have  sufficient  com- 
mand of  your  own  language  to  express  gracefully  and  pregnantly 
its  sense  and  feeling.  The  translation  by  Lord  Gower  may  content 
those  persons  who  do  not  know  the  original,  and  it  may  be  praised 
as  the  forerunner  of  a  better  one,  both  in  insight  and  vigor." 


England  223 

the  Scotchman  recognized  the  German  with  good-will  and 
honors  and  loves  him,  enables  him  to  perceive  his  excellent 
qualities  most  surely  and  to  arise  to  that  clear  understand- 
ing of  his  subject,  to  which  even  the  countrymen  of  this 
noble  poet  had  not  attained  in  former  days."  x 

In  1830  this  work,  through  the  mediation  of  Goethe, 
appeared  in  a  German  translation  at  Frankfurt-am-Main. 
Tc  it  was  prefixed  a  preface  by  Goethe,  praising  Carlyle 
for  his  excellent  work  and  dedicating  the  book  to  the 
"  Gesellschaft  fur  auslandische  Literatur  zu  Berlin."  The 
result  of  this  dedication  was  that  Carlyle's  service  to  Ger- 
man literature  was  honored  by  election  into  that  worthy 
society. 

Carlyle  was  not  yet  satisfied.  In  1823  the  bookseller 
Boyd  requested  Carlyle  to  translate  Wilhelm  Meisters 
Lehrjahre ;  with  joy  he  accepted  the  task.  Like  a  ferocious 
'hyena,"  he  grappled  with  his  subject  and  "struggled 
toughly  "  with  its  problems.  To  him  the  plot  seemed  good, 
but  the  moral  sometimes  dubious.  To  Jane  Welsh  he 
wrote,  Sept.  18,  1823:  "There  are  touches  of  the  high- 
est, most  ethereal,  genius  in  it ;  but  diluted  with  floods 
of  insipidity,  which  even  I  would  not  have  written  for  the 
world."  And  the  same  month  he  wrote  to  his  friend, 
James  Johnson :  "  Goethe  is  the  greatest  genius  that  has 
lived  for  a  century,  and  the  greatest  ass  that  has  lived  for 
three.  I  could  sometimes  fall  down  and  worship  him ;  at 
other  times  I  could  kick  him  out  of  the  room."  But  when 
he  had  finished  his  work,  he  declared  that  he  had  never 
read  before  a  book  of  such  unity  of  purpose,  so  compre- 
hensive and  true  in  its  application  to  life.  Again  he  wrote 
to  Jane  Welsh    (April   15,   1824)  :  "  I  have  not  gotten  as 

1  Cf.  Eckermann,  July  25,  1827. 

Cf.  Goethe's  letter  to  Zclter,  July  17,  1827. 


224         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

many  ideas  from  any  book  for  six  years."  In  May  the 
work  appeared  in  print,  and  a  copy  sent  to  Goethe  brought 
a  return  message  as  "  from  Fairyland." 

The  next  year  he  began  the  translation  of  stories  by 
German  writers  with  sketches  of  the  lives  of  the  authors. 
This  work,  entitled  German  Romance,  appeared  in  1827. 
It  contained  the  following  selections :  Goethe's  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Wanderjahre,  three  folk-tales  by  Musseus, 
Aslaugas  Ritter  by  Fouque,  Hoffmann's  Goldener  Topf, 
Tieck's  Der  blonde  Eckbert,  Der  getreue  Eckart,  Der 
Runenberg,  Die  Elfen  and  Der  Pokal,  and  Jean  Paul's 
Qnintus  Fixlein  and  Schmelzles  Abenteuer. 

In  the  translation  of  the  Wanderjahre  Carlyle  was  more 
successful  than  in  the  Lehrjahre.  Goethe's  simple,  graphic 
speech  was  rendered  into  correspondingly  picturesque  lan- 
guage. In  the  finer  shadings,  he  was  not  always  able  to 
make  the  exact  distinctions,  because  the  English  language 
cannot  by  the  use  of  a  prefix,  or  a  suffix,  change  the  mean- 
ing, and  also  cannot  form  those  varied  compounds  so  com- 
mon in  German.  For  Carlyle's  own  development,  however, 
this  work  was  most  important.  At  last  came  the  solution 
of  his  doubts  and  torments ;  confidence  came  back  to  his 
soul  and  strength  for  his  future  work.  From  now  on  he 
determined  to  give  to  his  countrymen  the  blessing  he  had 
received,  and  to  be  a  mediator  between  England  and  Ger- 
many. 

Carlyle's  translation  was  reviewed  most  favorably  by 
Goethe,1  who  said :  i(  Here,  as  in  the  Schiller  biography, 
Carlyle  shows  a  calm,  clear,  intimate  sympathy  with  the 
poetic  and  literary  beginnings  of  Germany;  he  devotes  him- 
self to  the  characteristic  tendency  of  the  whole  nation ;  he 
gives  worth  to  the  individual,  each  in  his  own  place,  and 

1  Kunst  mid  Altertum. 


England  225 

smooths  thereby  to  a  certain  extent  the  conflict  that  is  un- 
avoidable in  the  literature  of  any  nation."  1 

In  October  1827,  there  appeared  in  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view an  essay  on  the  State  of  German  Literature,  in  which 
Carlyle  showed  himself  a  keen  critic  of  aesthetic  principles 
and  of  the  prevailing  literature  in  England  and  Germany. 
With  fervor  he  exhorts  his  countrymen  to  look  to  Germany, 
where  so  much  good  is  to  be  found  and  where  truth  is  the 
goal  of  endeavor.2 

The  following  year,  besides  essays  on  Zacharias  Werner 
and  on  Heyne,  he  wrote  two  articles  on  Goethe's  life  and 
on  his  Helena.  In  the  Helena  he  speaks  in  detail  of  the 
great  significance  of  Faust  and  draws  a  parallel  between  it 
and  Iphigenie.3  In  the  essay  on  Goethe,  Carlyle  calls  the 
German  an  epoch-making  poet,  clear  and  universal  in  his 
thinking.  In  answer  to  the  assertion  that  Wilhelm 
Meister  was  a  vulgar  and  immoral  book,  unfit  to  be  read 
by  a  lady,  he  states  the  fact  that  the  late  Queen  of  Prussia 
was  familiar  with  it,  and  she  was  certainly  a  lady  of  first 
rank.  After  Goethe  had  read  the  article,  he  said  (Oct. 
11,  1828)  to  Eckermann:  "It  is  pleasant  to  see  how  the 
earlier  pedantry  of  the  Scotch  has  changed  into  earnest- 
ness and  profundity.  When  I  recollect  how  the  Edinburgh 
Reviewers  treated  my  works  many  years  ago  and  when 
I  now  consider  Carlyle's  merits  with  respect  to  German 
literature,  I  am  astonished  at  the  important  step  for  the 
better." 

In  1829  appeared  Carlyle's  interesting  articles  on  German 
playwrights,   on  Voltaire,   and  on  Novalis.     For  Novalis, 

1  See  Eckermann,  July  15,  1827. 

2  See  Goethe's  review  in  Kunst  und  Altertum  and  Carlyle's  letter 
of  Apr.  18,  1828,  to  Goethe. 

3  See  Kunst  mid  Altertum. 


226         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

whom  he  considered  the  German  Pascal,  he  had  an  intense 
sympathy.  He  acknowledged  his  too  great  passivity  of 
character,  however,  and  his  lack  of  resolute  manliness.  As 
a  type  of  decisive  character  and  dauntless  courage  he  cited 
Luther,  who  went  to  Worms  with  only  his  flute  and  Bible, 
and  who  dared  to  face  the  clergy,  the  peers  of  the  land, 
and  his  imperial  majesty,  and  to  declare  unflinchingly: 
'  Hier  steh'  ich;  ich  kann  nicht  anders;  Gott  helfe  mir." 
In  all  European  history  Carlyle  sees  no  sublimer  scene. 
So  attracted  was  he  by  the  German  reformer  that  he 
planned  to  go  to  Weimar  to  see  Goethe  and  also  to  gather 
materials  from  Thuringian  sources  for  a  life  of  Luther. 
"  When  I  write  that  Book  of  the  great  German  Lion,  it 
shall  be  the  best  book  I  have  ever  written  and  go  forth,  I 
think,  on  its  own  legs."  Unfortunately  the  necessary  means 
were  lacking,  and  his  plan  fell  through.  But  later  in  1840, 
in  his  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,1  he  honors  the  German 
whose  mission  was  "  to  work  an  epic  poem,  not  write  one." 
To  Carlyle's  enthusiasm  at  this  period  we  are  indebted 
for  his  translation  of  that  martial  song  of  the  Reformation 
"  Ein  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott."  2 

About  this  time  Carlyle  planned  an  extensive  history  of 
German  literature ;  Goethe  assisted  him  and  provided  him 
with  excellent  reference  works.  But  as  Carlyle  could  find 
no  publisher  for  the  forthcoming  book,  he  had  to  abandon 
this  scheme.  From  a  letter  to  Goethe,  dated  March  23, 
1830,  we  learn  the  scope  and  main  outline  of  his  projected 
work.  His  studies  were  not  wholly  useless,  however,  for 
parts  of  them  served  as  material  for  essays  the  next  year. 
Among  them  was  one  on  Schiller,  a  supplement  to  his 
former  Life  of  Schiller.     Its  occasion  was  the  reception  of 

1  Lecture  4:  The  Hero  as  Priest. 

2  Printed  in  Frascr's  Mag.,  1831. 


England  227 

the  Briefivechsel  zwischen  Schiller  und  Goethe,  sent  to 
him  by  the  latter.  In  this  essay  Carlyle  does  not  rate 
Schiller  as  high  as  formerly;  the  reason  is  probably  his 
intensive  study  of  Goethe. 

On  August  28th  of  this  year  Goethe's  eighty-second 
birthday  occurred.  With  fourteen  other  friends,  Carlyle 
sent  Goethe  a  letter  of  congratulation  with  a  beautiful  seal 
in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  bearing  the  motto,  "  Ohne  Hast — 
Ohne  Rast,"  words  that  were  an  allusion  to  Goethe's  poem : 

"  Wie  das  Gestirn 
Ohne  Hast, 
Aber  ohne  Rast, 
Drehe  sich  Jeder 
Um  die  eigne  Last."  ' 

Goethe,  delighted  with  the  gift  and  the  letter,  answered 
with  this  verse : 

"  Worte,  die  der  Dichter  spricht, 
Treu,  in  heimischen  Bezirken, 
Wirken  gleich,  doch  weiss  er  nicht, 
Ob  sie  in  die  Feme  wirken. 
Britten!  habt  sie  aufgefasst: 
Thatigen  Sinn!     Das  Thun  gezugelt: 
Stetig  Streben,  ohne  Hast! 
Und  so  vvollt  ihr  es  besiegelt !  " 

When  Carlyle  received  the  sad  news  of  Goethe's  death, 
he    wrote    a    eulogy    which    appeared    in    Bulwer's    New 

1  Carlyle's  translation : 

"  Like  as  a  star 
That  maketh  not  haste, 
That  taketh  not  rest, 
Be  each  one  fulfilling 
His  god-given  Hest." 


228         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Monthly  Magazine.1  So  true  and  so  beautiful  is  it  that  I 
would  like  to  quote  it  entire,  but  a  few  extracts  must 
suffice : 

"  So  thus  our  greatest  has  departed.  That  melody  of 
life,  with  its  cunning  tones,  which  took  captive  ear  and 
heart,  has  gone  silent ;  the  heavenly  force  that  dwelt  here 
victorious  over  so  much,  is  here  no  longer ;  thus  far,  not 
farther,  by  speech  and  by  act,  shall  the  wise  man  utter 
himself  forth.  The  End !  What  solemn  meaning  lies  in 
that  sound,  as  it  peals  mournfully  through  the  soul,  when 
a  living  friend  has  passed  away !  All  now  is  closed, 
irrevocable ;  the  changeful  life-picture,  growing  daily  into 
new  coherence,  under  new  touches  and  hues,  has  suddenly 
become  completed  and  unchangeable ;  there  as  it  lay,  it  is 
dipped,  from  this  moment,  in  the  aether  of  the  heavens,  and 
shines  transfigured  to  endure  even  so — forever.  Time  and 
Time's  Empire ;  stern,  wide,  devouring,  yet  not  without 
their  grandeur!  The  week-day  man,  who  was  one  of  us, 
has  put  on  the  garment  of  Eternity,  and  become  radiant 
and  triumphant ;  the  Present  is  all  at  once  the  Past ;  Hope 
is  suddenly  cut  away,  and  only  the  backward  vistas  of 
Memory  remain,  shone  on  by  a  light  that  proceeds  not  from 
this  earthly  sun. 

"  The  death  of  Goethe,  even  for  the  many  hearts  that 
personally  loved  him,  is  not  a  thing  to  be  lamented  over ; 
is  to  be  viewed,  in  his  own  spirit,  as  a  thing  full  of  greatness 
and  sacredness.  For  all  men  it  is  appointed  once  to  die. 
To  this  man  the  full  measure  of  a  man's  life  had  been 
granted,  and  a  course  and  task  such  as  to  only  a  few  in  the 
whole  generations  of  the  world :  what  else  could  we  hope 
or  require  but  that  now  he  should  be  called  hence  and  have 
leave  to  depart,  having  finished  the  work  that  was  given 
1  XXXIV,  p.  511,  June,  1832. 


England  229 

him  to  do?  If  his  course,  as  we  may  say  of  him  more 
justly  than  of  any  other,  was  like  the  Sun's,  so  also  was  his 
going  down.  For  indeed,  as  the  material  Sun  is  the  eye 
and  revealer  of  all  things,  so  is  Poetry,  so  is  the  World- 
Poet  in  a  spiritual  sense.  Goethe's  life  too,  if  we  examine 
it,  is  well  represented  in  that  emblem  of  a  solar  Day. 
Beautifully  rose  our  Summer  sun,  gorgeous  in  the  red  fer- 
vid east,  scattered  the  specters  and  sickly  damps  (of  both 
of  which  there  were  enough  to  scatter),  strong,  benignant 
in  his  noonday  clearness,  walked  triumphantly  through  the 
upper  realms ;  and  now,  mark  also  how  he  sets !  '  So  stirbt 
ein  Held,  anbetungsvoll.'  So  dies  a  hero  to  be  wor- 
shipped." .  .  . 

And  Carlyle's  final  conclusion  is  an  exhortation  to  his 
countrymen  to  continue  Goethe's  work  and  in  his  spirit. 

"  And  now  we  turn  back  into  the  world,  withdrawing 
from  this  new-made  grave.  The  man  whom  we  love  lies 
there :  but  glorious,  worthy ;  and  his  spirit  yet  lives  in  us 
with  an  authentic  life.  Could  each  here  now  vow  to  do 
his  little  task,  even  as  the  Departed  did  his  great  one;  in 
the  manner  of  a  true  man,  not  for  a  day,  but  for  Eternity! 
To  live,  as  he  counselled  and  commanded,  not  commo- 
diously  in  the  Reputable,  the  Plausible,  the  Half,  but  reso- 
lutely in  the  Whole,  the  Good,  the  True ! 

"  Im  Ganzen,  Guten,  Wahren  resolut  zu  leben !  " 

The  same  year  also  saw  his  essay  on  "  Goethe's  Works  " 
and  the  translation  of  Goethe's  Novelle  and  Mdrchen.  In 
this  essay  he  quotes  Teufelsdrockh's  homily  on  the  "  Great- 
ness of  Great  Men  "  and  gives  a  sketch  of  Goethe's  develop- 
ment. "  Perennial,  as  a  possession  forever,  Goethe's  His- 
tory and  Writings  abide  there ;  a  thousand-voiced  '  Melody 


230         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

of  Wisdom,'  which  he  that  has  ears  may  hear.  What  the 
experience  of  the  most  complexly-situated,  deep-searching, 
every  way  far-experienced  man  has  yielded  him  of  insight, 
lies  written  for  all  men  here.  He  who  was  of  compass  to 
know  and  feel  more  than  any  other  man,  this  is  the  record 
of  his  knowledge  and  feeling.  '  The  deepest  heart,  the 
highest  head  to  scan,'  was  not  beyond  his  faculty ;  thus,  then, 
did  he  scan  and  interpret :  let  many  generations  listen, 
according  to  their  want ;  let  the  generation  which  has  no 
need  of  listening,  and  nothing  new  to  learn  there,  esteem 
itself  a  happy  one."  "  Colite  talem  virum ;  learn  of  him, 
imitate,  emulate  him."  And  his  final  words  are,  "  Of 
Goethe  with  a  feeling  such  as  can  be  due  to  no  other  man, 
we  now  take  farewell.     Vixit,  vivit." 

With  this  work  closes  Carlyle's  essays  on  German  litera- 
ture. 

Toward  the  end  of  January  1827,  some  months  after  his 
marriage,  Carlyle  began  a  novel,  Wotton  Reinfred,  but  in 
his  discouragement  he  burned  up  the  manuscript.  How- 
ever, from  a  fragment  in  Last  Words,1  one  can  obtain  an 
idea  of  its  plan.  An  imitation  of  Wilhelm  Meister,  but  full 
of  reminiscences  of  his  own  life,  this  novel  has  as  its  theme 
'  The  end  of  man  is  an  action,  not  a  thought."  2  Weeping 
Wotton,  after  passing  through  many  experiences,  becomes 
a  useful  member  of  society.  One  of  the  characters  intro- 
duced in  this  novel  is  an  old  man  of  sixty,  Dalbrook  by 
name,  whose  conversation  savors  strongly  of  the  theories 
of  Kant,  Goethe,  and  Schiller.  Just  as  in  German  romanti- 
cism, art,  science,  and  literature  are  interwoven  with  life, 
so  in  this  novel. 

The  weird  child  Mignon  in  Wilhelm  Meister  had  a  great 

1  London,  1892. 

2  S.  Resartus,  bk.  ii,  chap,  vi,  p.  159. 


England  231 

charm  for  Carlyle.  In  this  novel,  Jane  Montagu,  who  has 
many  traits  of  Jane  Welsh,  reflects  in  her  life  the  fate  of 
Mignon ;  for  she  turns  out  to  be  the  long-lost  child  of  the 
Herberts,  who  had  been  stolen  from  her  parents  at  an 
early  age. 

Just  as  Wilhelm  Meister  has  a  faithful  friend,  Werner, 
so  Wotton  is  accompanied  by  the  good  Bernard  Swane, 
whose  prototype  in 'life  was  Carlyle's  friend,  Edward  Irving. 
A  fundamental  difference,  however,  between  Goethe's 
novel  and  Carlyle's  imitation  is  that  Wilhelm  Meister  acts; 
Wotton  only  listens  and  thinks.  Like  Faust,  Wilhelm 
Meister  exemplifies  in  his  life  the  Lord's  declaration: 

"  Ein  guter  Mensch  in  seinem  dunkeln  Drange 
1st  sich  des  rechten  Weges  wohl  bewusst," 

and  the  angels'  jubilant  chorus: 

"  Wer  immer  strebend  sich  bemuht, 
Den  konnen  wir  erlosen." 

Instead  of  teaching  the  narrow  Calvinistic  idea  of  pre- 
destination either  to  heaven  or  hell,  Goethe  saw  a  steady 
progress  of  man  toward  divinity,  a  progress  by  means  of 
constant  work  and  struggle.  It  was  this  message  which 
rang  out  in  clear  tones  from  Wilhelm  Meister,  a  message 
that  the  Puritanic  Scotchman  received  with  joy,  and,  like 
the  blind  man  who  was  healed  by  Christ,  he  hastened  in 
turn  to  impart  to  his  countrymen  and  to  the  world  the  new 
redemption  song  of  man's  divinity  and  the  blessing  of 
labor. 

What  else  did  Carlyle  learn  from  Goethe?  In  the  first 
place  he   felt  the  awful  seriousness  and  holy  purpose  of 


2^2         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

life.  With  the  chorus  at  Mignon's  grave  he  could  sing: 
'  Der  Ernst,  das  Heilige,  macht  allein  das  Leben  zur 
Ewigkeit."  And  then  came  the  lesson  of  limitation.  Goethe 
had  said :  "  Der  Sinn  erweitert,  aber  lahmt ;  die  Tat  belebt, 
aber  beschrankt,"  and  also,  "  In  der  Beschrankung  zeigt 
sich  erst  der  Meister."  To  Carlyle,  who  had  been  wont  to 
let  his  gloomy  thoughts  roam  over  the  whole  universe,  this 
admonition  was  at  first  an  enigma ;  but  gradually  he  came 
to  see  that  activity  was  the  only  safe  cure  of  doubt,  an 
activity  that  does  the  duty  nearest  at  hand.  How  precious 
and  important  is  this  duty  nearest  us !  Words  of  Goethe 
which  constantly  recur  in  Wotton  Reinfred  and  in  Sartor 
Resartus!  Not  the  Greek  maxim,  "  Know  thyself,"  but  its 
Teutonic  and  Goethean  substitute,  "  Know  thy  work  and 
do  it."  The  words  of  the  Wander jahre,  which  Goethe  rep- 
resented as  engraved  on  the  marble  statue  of  the  sarcoph- 
agus in  the  tower,  became  the  guiding  rule  of  Carlyle's 
Vita  Nuova — "  Gedenke  zu  leben !  ';  At  the  close  of  his 
essay  Goethe's  Portrait  (1832),  he  exhorts  his  readers  in 
stirring  phrase:  "Reader!  to  thee  thyself,  even  now,  he 
has  one  counsel  to  give,  the  secret  of  his  whole  poetic 
alchemy :  Gedenke  zu  leben.  Yes,  '  think  of  living !  '  Thy 
life,  wert  thou  the  '  pitifullest  of  all  the  sons  of  earth,'  is 
no  idle  dream,  but  a  solemn  reality.  It  is  thy  own ;  it  is 
all  thou  hast  to  front  eternity  with.  Work,  then,  even  as 
he  has  done  and  does — '  Like  a  star,  unhasting,  yet  unrest- 
ing ' — Sic  valeas." 

Another  Goethean  motive  emphasized  in  Carlyle's  work 
is  renunciation — "  Entsagen."  Not  the  passive  negative 
renunciation  of  life  and  its  dissolution  in  death  or  a 
Nirvana,1  but  that  positive  creative  conception,  which  is 
embodied  in  Christ's  teachings — a  giving  up  of  selfish  in- 
1  Cf.  Schopenhauer  and  Wagner. 


England  233 

dividual  desires  for  the  welfare  of  humanity.  "  Ye  must 
be  born  again,"  or  in  Goethe's  poetic  phrase, 

"  Und  so  lang  du  das  nicht  hast, 
Dieses  ;  Stirb  und  werde  ! 
Bist  du  nur  ein  triiber  Gast 
Auf  der  dunklen  Erde."  * 

Death  of  self  is  the  spiritual  re-birth  of  the  individual  for 
humanity.2 

From  Goethe  Carlyle  learned  also  the  meaning  of  rever- 
ence— "  Ehrfurcht."  In  Sartor  Resartus  he  says :  "  Thought 
without  reverence  is  barren,  perhaps  poisonous,"  and 
"Happy  is  he  who  can  look  through  the  clothes  of  a  man 
.  .  .  and  see  an  inscrutable  venerable  Mystery,  in  the  mean- 
est Thinker  that  sees  with  eyes !  "  3  Reverence  for  the 
divinity  of  man,  for  suffering  and  sorrow  in  all  its  seeming 
hideous  aspects.  This  worship  of  sorrow,  so  apparent  in 
the  IVanderjahre,  is  a  constantly  recurring  theme  in  Sartor 
Resartus  and  in  the  Hero-Worship.  And  when,  an  old  man 
of  seventy-one,  Carlyle  delivered  his  inaugural  address  as 
rector  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  (1866),  he  exhorted 
the  students  to  learn  reverence.  ''  Reverence !  Reverence ! 
Honor  due  to  those  who  are  greater  and  better  than  our- 
selves; honor,  distinct  from  fear.  Ehrfurcht,  the  soul  of 
all  religion."  4 

Besides    the   mighty    influence   of    Goethe   on    Carlyle's 

1  Sclige  Sehnsucht :  West-Osttichcr  Divan. 

2  The  anecdote  is  related  that  when  somebody,  on  seeing  Goethe's 
portrait,  exclaimed :  "  Voila  un  homme  qui  a  beaucoup  de  chagrin," 
Carlyle  instantly  replied :  "  No !  but  of  one  rather  who  has  turned 
his  suffering  into  useful  zvork." 

3  Bk.  i,  chap,  x,  pp.  68-69. 

4  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Literature  by  Thos.  Carlyle,  Apr.  to 
June,  1838,  ed.  by  Prof.  J.  B.  Greene,  London,  1892,  p.  193- 


234         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

development,  that  of  Jean  Paul  Richter  is  by  no  means  to 
be  disregarded.  Through  De  Quincey,  who  was  an  ardent 
admirer  of  the  German  humorist,  Carlyle  was  first  led  to 
study  him.  Later  he  said  1  that  it  was  De  Quincey's  re- 
ported admiration  "  that  first  put  him  upon  trying  to  be 
orthodox  and  admire."  As  I  have  already  pointed  out, 
Carlyle's  translations  for  his  Specimens  of  German  Ro- 
mance (1824)  contained  two  tales  from  Jean  Paul:  Quin- 
tus  Fixlein  and  Schmehles  Abenteuer.  At  the  conclusion 
of  an  essay  on  Jean  Paul,  written  June  1827,  he  writes 
enthusiastically :  "  Germany  has  long  loved  him ;  to  Eng- 
land also  he  must  one  day  become  known;  for  a  man  of 
this  magnitude  belongs  not  to  one  people  but  to  the  world."  2 
Two  years  later  he  writes  another  laudatory  essay  under 
the  title  of  Jean  Paul  Returned  Again,  and  says :  "  A  Poet, 
and  among  the  highest  of  his  time,  we  must  reckon  him, 
though  he  wrote  no  verses ;  a  Philosopher,  though  he 
promulgated  no  systems ;  for,  on  the  whole,  that  'Divine 
idea  of  the  world  '  stood  in  clear  ethereal  light  before  his 
mind ;  he  recognized  the  Invisible,  even  under  the  mean 
forms  of  these  days  and  with  a  high,  strong,  not  uninspired 
heart,  strove  to  represent  it  in  the  Visible,  and  published 
tidings  of  it  to  his  fellow-men.  This  one  virtue,  the  foun- 
dation of  all  the  other  virtues,  and  which  a  long  study 
more  and  more  clearly  reveals  to  us  in  Jean  Paul,  will 
cover  far  greater  sins  than  his  were." 

In  the  preface  to  the  Specimens,  after  a  short  sketch  of 
Richter,  the  Western  Oriental,  whose  "  subject  is  life," 
Carlyle  discusses  his  choice  of  material  for  translation.  He 
had  not  found  Schmelzle's  Journey  noticed  by  any  of  his 

1  Froude,  I,  p.  296. 

2  Later  he  modified  this  opinion  somewhat  by  declaring  Jean  Paul 
was  far  inferior  to  Goethe.    Lectures,  p.  211. 


England  235 

German  critics,  but  gave  it  on  his  own  responsibility  "  as 
one  of  the  most  finished,  as  it  is  at  least  one  of  the  simplest, 
among  his  smaller  humorous  performances."  The  Life  of 
Fixlein  was  chosen  "  rather  from  necessity  than  prefer- 
ence," as  it  was  Richter's  shortest  complete  novel.  The 
reader  must  accept  it  with  allowances,  because  "  Richter's 
is  a  mind  peculiarly  difficult  to  represent  by  specimen ;  for 
its  elements  are  complex  and  various,  and  it  is  not  more 
by  quality  than  by  quantity  that  it  impresses  us."  Then 
Carlyle  discusses  Richter's  language,  so  rugged,  hetero- 
geneous, perplexing,  and  declares  that  his  "  style  may  be 
pronounced  the  most  untranslatable,  not  in  German  only, 
but  in  any  modern  literature,"  as  he  "  exhausts  all  the 
powers  of  his  own  ductile  language." 

Of  all  English  writers,  however,  Carlyle  was  the  best 
fitted  by  natural  temperament  and  mode  of  expression  to 
render  Jean  Paul's  bizarre  and  picturesque  style.  In  fact, 
he  was  even  accused  by  his  countrymen  of  being  an  imitator 
of  the  German's  manner  of  writing;  and  such  able  critics 
as  Francis  Jeffrey,  Charles  Norton,  Anthony  Froude,  Ed- 
mond  Scherer,  Leigh  Hunt,  and  Wilhelm  Streuli  have  dis- 
cussed both  sides  of  the  question.  My  opinion  is  that  it 
was  temperamental,  the  result  of  his  own  character,  his 
early  home  life  and  reading;  but  that  its  peculiarities  were 
enhanced  by  his  intensive  study  of  Jean  Paul,  and  exag- 
gerated in  Sartor  Resartus. 

One  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  Jean  Paul's  style  is 
his  use  of  visions,  sudden  and  awful  apparitions  rising  up 
from  the  triviality  of  his  tales.1  These  visions  had  a  pow- 
erful effect  on  Carlyle.  LikeN  Dante's  dream,  they  were 
profound  expressions  of  dire  destruction,  unsurpassed  ex- 

1  See  1st  chap,  of  Sicbenkas,  translated  by  Carlyle  at  end  of 
Jean  Paul  Returned  Again. 


236         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

cept  by  the  prophecies  of  the  Bible.  They  represented  the 
throes  of  a  dying  world  and  the  dawn  of  modernity.1 

Another  reason  why  Carlyle  so  admired  Jean  Paul  was 
probably  because  his  own  life  repeated  many  phases  of  the 
German's  development.  Like  Jean  Paul,  he  was  a  vora- 
cious reader  and  an  encyclopedia  of  knowledge.  Like  him, 
too,  he  had  to  struggle  with  poverty  and  adversity  and  was 
battling  for  destiny.  In  true  democratic  spirit,  Carlyle 
could  not  refrain  from  scornfully  asserting  that  in  Eng- 
land "  We  have  no  men  of  letters  now,  but  only  literary 
Gentlemen." 

As  Carlyle  learned  from  Schiller,  courage ;  from  Goethe, 
renunciation,  the  divinity  of  work,  the  worship  of  sorrow ; 
from  Novalis,  holiness  of  faith ;  so  from  Jean  Paul  he 
gained  his  ideal  of  humor.  As  he  writes  in  his  essay  on  that 
author:  "True  humor  is  sensibility,  in  the  most  catholic 
and  deepest  sense ;  but  it  is  this  sport  of  sensibility ;  whole- 
some and  perfect  therefore ;  as  it  were  the  playful  teasing 
fondness  of  a  mother  to  her  child."  As  for  Richter,  "  he 
alone  exists  in  humor,  lives,  moves,  and  has  his  being  in 
it."  In  this  respect  he  is  "  Jean  Paul  der  Einzige,  Jean 
Paul  the  Unique." 

In  Sartor  Resartus,  the  Life  and  Opinions  of  Herr 
Teufelsdrockh,  written  in  1830-31  and  published  1838,  the 
reader  becomes  acquainted  with  Carlyle's  creed,  as  the  germ 
of  his  future  life  and  as  a  critique  of  the  age.  Carlyle,  as 
Herr  Teufelsdrockh,  treats  religion,  politics,  literature, 
art,  and  social  questions  of  the  day.  Herr  Diogenes 
Teufelsdrockh  is  a  German  professor  of  "  allerlei  Wissen- 
schaft  "  in  the  university  city  of  Weissnichtwo.  He  has 
written  a  book  called  Die  Kleider,  ihr  Werden  und  Wirken,2 

1  See  motto  to  Past  and  Present. 

'  Clothes,  their  Origin  and  Influence. 


England  237 

for  clothes  have  a  spirit,  just  as  well  as  laws.  Under  the 
picture  of  a  garde-robe  Carlyle  represents  human  customs 
and  religions.  Each  garment  contains  an  invisible  and 
divine  idea.  With  change  of  clothes  comes  change  of  in- 
stitutions. To  the  common  eye  man  is  an  animal  in  clothes, 
but  to  the  initiated,  a  spirit  and  a  divine  creation.  The 
motto  of  the  book  is  taken  from  Faust,  which  reads  in 
Carlyle's  translation  i1 

"  In  Being's  floods,  in  Action's  storm, 
I  walk  and  work,  above,  beneath, 
Work  and  weave  in  endless  motion ! 
Birth  and  Death, 
An  infinite  ocean ; 
A  seizing  and  giving 
The  fire  of  Living: 

Tis  thus  at  the  roaring  Loom  of  Time  I  ply, 
And  weave  for  God  the  Garment  thou  seest  Him  by." 

Not  only  as  a  critic  and  essayist  of  German  literature  was 
Carlyle  active,  but  also  as  a  lecturer.  In  the  summer  of 
1837  he  gave  six  lectures  on  German  literature;  the  next 
year  came  a  series  on  the  history  of  European  literature, 
and  a  course  on  religious  problems  and  reforms.  In  1840 
he  delivered  a  last  series  on  Hero  and  Hero-Worship,  in 
which  the  ideas  of  Sartor  Rcsartus  were  amplified.  In  the 
lecture  on  Goethe  he  says :  "  I  consider  that,  for  the  last 
one  hundred  years,  by  far  the  notablest  of  all  Literary  Men 
is  Goethe."  As  far  as  material  was  concerned,  the  lectures 
contained  nothing  new  ;  in  fact,  they  were  only  a  compilation 
of  his  former  studies.  Yet  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he 
delivered  them  drew  large  crowds.  As  he  wrote  humorously 
to  his  sister:2    "I  had  bonnie  braw  dames,  Ladies  this, 

1  S.  R.,  Iik.  i,  chap,  viii,  p.  56, 

2  June  12,  1838. 


238         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Ladies  that,  though  I  dared  not  look  at  them  for  fear  they 
should  put  me  out.  I  had  only  men  of  four-score;  men 
middle-aged,  with  fine  steel-gray  beards ;  young  men  of  the 
Universities,  of  the  law-profession,  all  sitting  quite  mum 
there,  and  the  Annandale  voice  gollying  at  them."  And 
Robinson,  who  attended  some  of  them,  reports  of  his  lec- 
ture on  "  The  Prophetic  Character  illustrated  by  Mahomet," 
that  "  it  gave  great  satisfaction,  for  it  had  uncommon 
thoughts  and  was  delivered  with  great  animation."  x 

The  period  from  1819  to  1840  was  the  one  in  Carlyle's 
life  in  which  the  influence  of  German  literature  was  most 
apparent.  Henceforih.  other  questions,  of  a  social  or  his- 
torical nature,  occupy  his  attention.  We  enter  now  on  the 
epoch  in  which  he  distinguishes  himself  as  an  historian  and 
philosopher,  as  the  author  of  The  History  of  Frederick, 
called  Frederick  the  Great.2 

After  the  death  of  Frederick  the  Great,  Schiller  had 
conceived  the  plan  of  writing  his  life  in  the  style  of  Plutarch, 
but  appalled  by  the  gigantic  task  of  representing  adequately 
this  great  eighteenth  century  with  its  commerce,  culture, 
religion,  and  philosophy,  he  had  abandoned  the  idea.  More- 
over he  probably  felt  that  he  had  not  enough  love  and  en- 
thusiasm for  the  great  Prussian  to  warrant  him  in 
undertaking  such  a  complex  work.  The  task  the  Ger- 
man master  did  not  even  attempt,  his  Scotch  pupil  accom- 
plished. 

As  I  have  already  stated,  Carlyle's  first  reading  in  Ger- 
man was  Archenholz's  Seven  Years'  War.  Later  in  the 
retirement  of  his  Scottish  home  he  read  Preuss's  two  books 

1  Diary,  II,  p.  287. 

2  6  vols.,   first  4  vols,   translated   into   German  by  Neuberg  and 
Althaus. 


England  239 

on  Frederick  the  Great,1  which  awakened  in  him  a  lively 
impulse  to  learn  more  about  this  hero.    To  Carlyle  the  King 
represented  an  ideal  type  for  a  genuine  epic.    Year  by  year 
this  interest  grew,  until  in  1852  he  commenced  a  thorough 
study  of  such  histories  as  he  was  able  to  obtain.     Preuss, 
Ranke,     Voltaire,     Jomini,     Archenholz,     Lloyd,     Retzow, 
Zimmermann,  Nicolai,  and  Denina  were  all  examined  and 
found  wanting.     He  studied  maps  and  plans,  traveled  to 
Germany  in   1852,   and  again   in    1858,  to  gather  material 
and  to  visit  the  battlefields  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.    The 
more  he  progressed  in  his  study,  the  greater  his  apparent 
difficulties.      The   first  volume  of  the  history   appeared  in 
1858,  the  last  and  sixth  volume  in  1865 — a  work  to  which 
he  had  devoted  fourteen  years  of  untiring  labor.     That  it 
was   considered   a    reliable   authority   is   confirmed   by   the 
fact  that  it  was  immediately   translated  into  German  and 
used   as   reading   in   the    Prussian   military   schools.     This 
work  is  not  merely  the  glorification  of  a  great  man,  general 
and  administrator,  but  also  of  the  state  he  represented,  of 
Prussia,   which  was  to   become  the  leading  state  of  Ger- 
many   and    the    representative   of    culture.      For    Carlyle's 
services  to   German   thought,   the  German   nation   has  not 
been  ungrateful.     In  1872  when  the  German  Empress  was 
in   England,   she  brought  personally  to   Carlyle   the  greet- 
ings of  the  Emperor,  and  in  the  latter's  name  she  thanked 
him  for  his  Life  of  Frederick  and  for  his  great  services  to 
German  literature.    In  1873  he  received  the  Prussian  Order 
of  Merit,  on  account  of  his  great  sympathy  with  Germany 
during  the  Franco-Prussian  War.     On  his  eightieth  birth- 
day, there  came  from  Berlin  a  telegram  of  congratulations 
signed  by  ten  of  the  most  noted  writers,   historians,  and 

1  Friedrich  der  Grossc:   Eine  Lebensgeschichte,   Bd.    1-4,   Berlin, 
1832-34,  and  Friedrich  der  Grosse  als  Schriftstellcr,  Berlin,  1838. 


240         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

philosophers.  In  it  Carlyle  was  heralded  as  the  "  fighter 
for  German  freedom  of  thought  and  moral  integrity."  Of 
the  many  letters  he  received  on  this  worthy  occasion  was  one 
from  Bismarck.     It  reads  as  follows  : 

'  The  celebration  of  your  seventieth  [really  eightieth] 
birthday  is  a  matter  of  concern  also  for  Germany,  and  I  may 
confirm  [ja  sagen]  it  to  you  in  my  native  language.  As  you 
introduced  Schiller  to  your  countrymen,  so  you  have  rep- 
resented to  the  Germans  our  great  Prussian  king  in  his  com- 
plete form,  as  a  living  statue.  What  many  years  ago  you 
said  about  the  '  heroic  writer,'  that  he  stands  under  the  noble 
obligation,  of  being  forced  to  be  true,  has  been  fulfilled 
in  yourself ;  but  more  fortunate  than  those,  of  whom  you 
spoke  at  that  time,  may  you  rejoice  in  the  work  you  have 
accomplished,  and  will  accomplish  in  the  rich  power,  that 
we  hope  God  will  long  grant  to  you.  Receive  with  my 
heartiest  congratulations  the  assurance  of  my  sincere  esteem. 
(Signed)  '  Prince  von  Bismarck." 

The  British  point  of  view  in  regard  to  Carlyle  is  ex- 
pressed by  a  critic  who  writes  in  the  Foreign  Quarterly 
Review: 1  '  We  all  remember  how  Mr.  Carlyle,  '  the  old 
man  eloquent,'  who  in  his  younger  days,  fifty  years  ago, 
betook  himself  to  Goethe  for  light  and  help,  and  found 
what  he  sought,  and  declaimed  his  gratitude  so  powerfully 
and  well,  and  did  so  much  to  make  Goethe's  name  a  name 
of  might  for  other  Englishmen  also,  a  strong  tower  unto 
which  the  doubter  and  the  despairer  might  run  and  be  safe 
— we  all  remember  how  Mr.  Carlyle  has  taught  us  to  see  in 
Gotz  and  in  Werther  the  double  source  from  which  have 
flowed  those  two  mighty  streams — the  literature  of  feudal- 
ism and   romance,   represented   for  us  by   Scott,  and  the 

1  CXLV,  p.  147- 


England  241 

literature  of  emotion  and  passion,  represented  for  us  by 
Byron." 

In  the  Arcturus  of  April  1841  1  an  American  critic,  who 
is  rather  hostile  to  the  new  German  culture,  writes :  "  The 
English  critic  and  expositor  of  the  great  German  is  Carlyle, 
whom  Goethe  speaks  of  in  Eckermann's  Conversations  2  as 
having  a  finer  insight  into  German  authors  and  as  possess- 
ing higher  aesthetic  culture  than  any  man  in  Germany,  ques- 
tionless a  compliment  to  the  admiring  critic  of  Faust  and 
Wilhclm  Meister.  Still  with  all  his  crudity,  his  quaintness 
and  affectation,  Carlyle  is  a  powerful  thinker  and  a  bold 
writer.  Often  absurd,  as  often  picturesque ;  frequently 
fantastic,  and  yet  sometimes  really  profound." 

James  F,  Clarke,  the  earnest  student  of  German  culture, 
expresses  the  desire  that  some  publisher  would  edit  Car- 
lyle's  essays  on  German  literature  and  biography  and  writes : 
"  Mr.  Carlyle  has  done  a  great  deal  by  his  writings,  to  make 
us  acquainted  with  the  modern  literature  of  Germany.  By 
his  excellent  translations,  as  well  as  by  his  spirited  articles 
in  various  periodicals,  he  has  nearly  broken  down  the  wall 
of  division  which  rose  between  the  two  great  and  kindred 
literatures  of  England  and  Germany.  When  he  began  to 
write,  eight  or  ten  years  ago,  what  did  we  know  of  German 
writers?  Wieland's  Oberon,  Klopstock's  Messias,  Kotze- 
bue's  plays,  Schiller's  Robbers,  Goethe's  Werther,  a  dim 
notion  of  his  Faust,  and  what  we  could  learn  from  Mme. 
de  Stael's  De  I'Allemagne, — this  was  about  the  substance 
of  what  well  educated  Englishmen  understood  as  constitut- 
ing the  modern  masterpieces  of  German  genius.  Of  the 
massive  and  splendid  structure  of  philosophy  which  Kant 
had  founded,  and  men  of  like  talent  built  up,  we  had  only 

1  I,  pp.  278-84,  Art.:  R.  W.  Emerson  by  J. 

2  Cf.  Eckermann,  Oct.  11,  1828. 


242         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

to  say,  '  mystical,'  '  transcendental ' ;  and  having  pro- 
nounced these  two  pregnant  words,  we  judged  ourselves 
excused  from  all  further  examination.  And  yet,  this  very 
time,  there  existed  a  literature  unsurpassed  in  the  history 
of  the  world  for  genius,  variety,  and  extent.  Goethe's 
Werther  had  been  forgotten  in  his  splendid  series  of  dra- 
matic, aesthetic,  and  philosophical  writings.  His  Egmont, 
Tasso,  and  Iphigenie,  his  Hermann  and  Dorothea;  his  ex- 
quisite lyrics ;  his  philosophical  romances ;  and  his  pro- 
found treatises  on  art  and  science,  had  quite  eclipsed  the 
dazzling  products  of  his  youthful  pen.  Schiller's  Robbers 
was  looked  upon  as  an  indiscretion  and  pardoned  for  the 
s£.ke  of  the  Joan  of  Arc,  the  Maria  Stuart,  the  Wilhelm 
Tell,  the  Wallenstein — ripe  fruits  of  his  maturer  taste  and 
more  developed  genius.  Richter,  Novalis,  Tieck,  and  a 
whole  crowd  of  master-spirits  had  carved  out  for  them- 
selves a  home  in  the  intellectual  community.  But  of  all 
this  we  knew  little.  Much  praise,  then,  to  Mr.  Carlyle 
for  having  introduced  us  to  this  fair  circle  of  gifted 
minds."  x 

Abraham  Hay  ward  ( 1801-1884) 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Hayward  owed  his  first  interest 
in  German  literature  to  De  l'Allemagne  and  to  his  associa- 
tion with  Mrs.  Jameson.  As  a  pupil  in  Bath  (1809-11) 
he  lived  with  her  friends,  and  the  many  references  to 
Mme.  de  Stael  in  the  introduction  to  his  translation  of 
Faust  show  that  he  was  a  discriminating  reader  of  De 
l'Allemagne.  After  he  had  studied  Latin  and  Greek  for 
six  years  at  Teverton,  the  "  Eton  "  of  West  England,  he 
acquired  a  thorough  mastery  of  French  and  German  under 
1  West.  Mess.,  IV,  pp.  417-23,  Feb.,  1838. 


England  243 

a  private  tutor.  He  then  took  up  the  study  of  law  and  of 
English  literature.  With  Macaulay  he  enjoyed  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  one  of  the  best  read  men  in  all  England. 

As  a  student  of  the  Inner  Temple,  he  came  into  close 
association  with  other  progressive  young  barristers,  such  as 
George  Cornwall  Lewis  and  John  Austin,  the  husband  of 
Mrs.  Sarah  Austin,  and  a  devotee  of  German  literature. 
As  member  of  the  "  London  Debating  Society  "  and  editor 
of  the  Law  Magazine  (1824-44),  he  was  in  touch  with  noted 
German  jurists  and  acquired  more  than  a  European  reputa- 
tion. His  first  great  work,  a  translation  of  Savigny's  tract 
on  natural  right  as  the  basis  of  law,1  was  such  a  great 
success,  that  he  decided  to  go  to  Gottingen  to  see  Savigny. 
The  jurist  was  absent  from  the  city  at  that  time,  but  Hay- 
ward  met  many  of  Goethe's  friends.  Then  came  the  de- 
termination to  translate  Faust.  His  work,  a  prose  version 
of  Part  I,  appeared  in  February  1833.  Of  it  the  New 
Monthly  Magazine  2  wrote :  "  It  is  the  only  one  that  con- 
veys to  us  a  literal  and  precise  notion  of  the  original." 
From  all  sides  came  letters  of  congratulation.  In  Germany 
the  work  was  called  "  true  to  word  and  spirit."  Carlyle 
wrote  that  it  was  "  done  in  a  manly  style,"  even  though  he 
did  not  admit  the  argument  for  prose  translations.  Later, 
after  nineteen  different  versions  were  in  existence,  he  still 
declared  "  Hayward's  was  the  best." 

To  this  translation  was  prefixed  a  very  lengthy  intro- 
duction, in  which  Hayward  discusses  all  the  previous  ver- 
sions in  English  and  in  French.  As  to  the  charge  that 
Faust  was  immoral,  he  wrote :  "  With  regard  to  the  accusa- 
tion   of    indecency,    I    have   only    to   say    that    when    Mrs. 

1  Of  the  Vocation  of  Our  Age  for  Legislation  and  Jurisprudence, 
June,  1831. 

2  XXXVIII,  pp.  302-04,  1833- 


244         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Austin's  Selections  '  shall  have  superseded  the  Old  Testa- 
ment— which,  if  any  selections  could  produce  such  a  catas- 
trophe, they  would — and  Mr.  Bowdler's  Shakespeare  shall 
be  the  only  Shakespeare  on  our  shelves,  I  shall  be  quite 
ready  to  admit  that  Faust  deserves  to  be  excluded  from 
general  perusal  for  indecency.  But  not  till  then ;  for  the 
whole  poem  does  not  contain  a  fifth  part  of  the  condemned 
expressions  or  allusions  to  be  found  in  any  two  books  of 
the  Pentateuch  or  any  two  acts  of  Othello,  Hamlet,  or  Lear; 
and  (confining  this  observation  to  Shakespeare)  I  am  sure 
the  purpose  is  equally  pure."  2 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  his  Faust  Hayward  again 
went  to  Germany  to  talk  over  parts  of  the  drama  with 
Goethe's  friends,  and  to  prepare  a  new  and  enlarged  edi- 
tion. Everywhere  he  received  a  cordial  welcome.  From 
now  on,  according  to  Bernal  Osborne,  he  becomes  "  the 
connecting  link  between  the  political  and  literary  mag- 
nates." To  the  new  edition  of  January  1834  were  added 
extensive  notes,  which  show  careful  thought  and  dis- 
criminating judgment,  and  which  served  as  aids  to  all  the 
later  translators. 

During  the  same  period  Hayward  wrote  a  long  article 
on  Goethe's  Posthumous  Works  (Vols.  I-V)  for  the  For- 
eign Quarterly  Review.3  With  the  exception  of  a  few 
comments  on  Goethe's  other  works,  the  most  of  the  article 
is  devoted  to  a  careful  analysis  of  the  second  part  of 
Faust,  with  quotations  from  Mine,  de  Stael  and  from  Mrs. 

1  Selections  from  the  Old  Testament  arranged  under  heads  to 
illustrate  the  religion,  morality,  and  poetry  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures. 

2  Pp.  lxxvi-lxxvii. 

3  XII,  pp.  81-109,  Apr.-July,  1833;  also  reprinted  in  the  Select 
Journal  of  Foreign  and  Periodical  Literature,  Boston,  Jan.,  1834, 
III,  No.  5,  pt.  ii,  pp.  16-43. 


England  245 

Austin's  Characteristics.  The  greatest  value  of  this  article, 
however,  is  the  number  of  translations,  which  rank  among 
the  first  English  versions  of  the  second  part. 

In  a  later  issue  of  the  Foreign  Quarterly  Review*  ap- 
peared a  further  discussion  of  Goethe's  Posthumous  Works 
(Vols.  VI-XV),  which,  from  the  character  of  the  contents, 
seems  the  work  of  Hayward,  but  I  have  not  yet  been  able 
to  verify  that  fact. 

Some  time  later  he  wrote  a  long  article  on  Germany  and 
the  Germans  for  the  Quarterly  Review.2  In  September 
1840  there  appeared  in  the  same  magazine  an  essay  en- 
titled Prince  George  of  Hanover  on  Music,  at  which  the 
royal  family  expressed  their  delight.'5  His  excellent  article 
on  General  von  Radowitz  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  4  helped 
to  establish  the  reputation  of  the  German  as  a  statesman. 
Other  essays  reminiscent  of  German  thought  are  the  fol- 
lowing: Frederic  von  Gentz?  Harriet  Martineau's  Auto- 
biography? Thomas  Carlyle  and  His  Reminiscences,7 
Prince  Bismarck,8  and  Ticknor's  Memoirs.9 

For  Mrs.  Oliphant's  series  of  Foreign  Classics  for  Eng- 
lish Readers,  Hayward  wrote  a  life  of  Goethe,10  which  won 
much  praise  for  him.  Gladstone  wrote  him,  June  6,  1878: 
"  I  wanted  .  .  .  first  of  all  to  thank  you  for  your  delight- 
ful volume  on  Goethe,  an  admirable  specimen  of  combined 

1  XIV,  pp.  131-62,  Aug.-Dec,  1834. 

2  No.   116.     See  letter  to  his  sister  Jan.  23,  1837,  where  he  men- 
tions that  he  received  £50  for  it. 

1  Letter  of  Oct.  3,  1840,  by  John  Murray. 
4  Jan.  2,  1851. 
6  N.  Brit.  R.,  1864. 
0  Quar.  R.,  Apr.,  1877- 
"Ibid.,  Apr.,  1881. 
8  Ibid.,  Jan.,   1879. 
8  Ibid.,  July,  1876. 
10  London,  1878;  Amer.  ed.,  Philadelphia,  1878;  new  ed.,  1889. 


246         Madajvje  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

information  and  criticism  without  the  waste  of  a  word." 
From  Mrs.  Grote,  Sept.  1,  1878,  came  this  letter:  "It 
was  gratifying  to  me  to  see  how  justly  your  Goethe 
was  noticed  by  the  critic  of  the  Times  in  Saturday's  paper, 
August  31.  He  seized  your  point  of  view  and  points  out 
its  value — the  absorbing  element  of  the  artist  nature  bent 
upon  '  producing  effect '  by  any  and  every  device  within 
its  reach.  The  total  nakedness  of  the  '  morale  '  in  Goethe 
never  came  out  so  forcibly  as  in  your  dissection  of  the 
man ;  whilst  by  no  writer  has  his  greatness  been  more 
reverently  acknowledged,  on  the  theater  of  his  creations." 
The  dominant  trait  of  Hayward's  character  was  a  "  fierce 
love  of  truth  "  and  a  desire  "  to  whip  hypocrisy  "  in  all  its 
varied  forms.  Sincerity,  combined  with  a  logical  mind, 
accurate  knowledge,  and  prodigious  energy,  made  a  deep 
and  lasting  impression  on  his  generation.  In  the  words  of 
Mr.  Escott : 1  "  Few  Englishmen,  indeed,  have  had  a  larger 
personal  acquaintance  on  the  Continent.  Few  knew  the 
character  of  France  and  Germany  better,  or  had  a  juster 
appreciation  and  a  deeper  insight  into  the  spirit  of  their 
literature." 

Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  (1828-1882) 

In  a  most  interesting  lecture  2  Dr.  L.  A.  Willoughby  has 
traced  the  influence  of  German  thought  upon  Rossetti's 
poetic  and  artistic  composition.  In  the  list  of  books  men- 
tioned by  Rossetti's  brother,  the  one  work  that  he  read 
over  and  over  was  Faust  in  Filmore's  translation,  supple- 
mented by  Retzsch's  sketches.     This  and  Carlyle's  transla- 

1  London  Fortnightly  R.,  old  ser.,  XLI,  pp.  414-32;  new  ser., 
XXXV,  Mar.,  1884. 

2  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  and  German  Literature,  London,  1912. 


England  247 

cion  of  Wilhehn  Meister  were  the  only  two  German  works 
in  his  library.  His  first  original  composition,  a  fragment 
of  a  novel,  Sorentino  (1843),  was  inspired  by  his  Ger- 
man reading.  During  this  same  period  (1832-48),  Ros- 
setti  learned  German  from  an  excellent  teacher,  Dr.  Adolf 
Heimann,  Professor  of  German  at  University  College, 
London.  His  first  translation,  a  version  of  Lenore  (1844), 
ranks  as  one  of  the  best  on  this  subject.  The  next  year 
came  a  poetic  rendition  of  several  hundred  lines  from  the 
Nibelung enlicd.  This,  in  turn,  was  followed  by  a  version 
of  Hartmann's  Der  arme  Heinrich.  His  Gretchen  in  the 
Temple  was  based  upon  Faust,  and  his  picture  of  Lady 
Lilith  was  inspired  by  Goethe's  quatrain  in  the  Walpurgis- 
nacht. 

The  Blessed  Damozel,  written  in  1847,  affords  an  in- 
teresting comparison  with  Faust.  In  the  Prologue  in 
Heaven  the  archangel  Gabriel  sings : 

"  With  speed,  thought  baffling,  unabating, 
Earth's  splendor  whirls  in  circling  flight; 
Its  Eden-brightness  alternating 
With  solemn  awe-inspiring  night."  1 

The  sixth  stanza  of  Rossetti's  poem  reads : 

"It  [the  sun]  lies  in  heaven,  across  the  flood 
Of  ether,  as  a  bridge ! 
Beneath  the  tides  of  day  and  night 
With  flame  and  darkness  ridge 
The  void,  as  low  as  where  this  earth 
Spins  like  a  fretful  midge." 

At  the  end  of  the  second  part  of  Faust,  in  the  Chorus 
Mysticus,  Gretchen  intercedes  for  Faust  and  begs 

1  Swanwick's  translation. 


248         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

"  To  guide  him,  be  it  given  to  me ; 
Still  dazzles  him  the  new-born  day;" 

whereupon  the  Mater  Dolorosa  answers : 

"  Ascend,  thine  influence  feeleth  he, 
He'll  follow  on  thine  upward  way."  % 

In  Rossetti's  poem,  the  Blessed  Damozel,  a  chorister  of 
God,  leans  out  of  heaven  and  says : 

" '  I  wish  that  he  were  come  to  me, 
For  he  will  come,'  she  said. 
'Have  I  not  prayed  in  Heaven? — on  earth, 
Lord,  Lord,  has  he  not  pray'd? 

I'll  take  his  hand  and  go  with  him 
To  the  deep  wells  of  light; 

And  I  myself  will  teach  to  him, 

I  myself,  lying  so, 

The  songs  I  sing  here.'  " 

As  a  painter  Rossetti  was  also  indebted  to  German  art. 
The  English  Pre-Raphaelite  Movement  and  the  German 
Nazarenes  had  common  ideals.  Their  aims  were  threefold : 
to  free  painting  from  all  pseudo-classical  conventions,  to 
select  models  among  the  early  Italian  painters,  and  to  have 
a  more  intimate  relation  with  nature.  In  Overbeck  and 
Cornelius  the  religious  tendency  of  romanticism  had  found 
expression ;  in  the  younger  generation,  led  by  Fuhrich  and 
Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld,  the  poetry  and  chivalry  of  the 
mediaeval  ages  were  exalted.  Rossetti  and  his  circle  were 
followers  of  the  latter.  According  to  their  own  state- 
ments, the  Pre-Raphaelite  Movement  had  its  origin  in 
1848,    when    one    evening   at    Millais's   home,    the    friends 

1  Swanwick's  version. 


England  249 

were  looking  at  the  engravings  of  the  Campo  Santo  and  the 
illustrations  of  Tieck's  Genoveva  by  the  Austrian  painter 
Joseph  Fuhrich. 

In  his  summary,  Dr.  Willoughby  states  that  German 
literature  had  a  deep  influence  upon  Rossetti's  development. 
In  it  he  found  the  mysticism,  romantic  coloring,  sensuous- 
ness,  supernaturalism,  and  deep  religions  feeling  that  har- 
monized so  well  with  his  own  nature.  German  poetry  was, 
in  short,  the  mighty  stimulus  that  incited  him  to  search 
for  beauty  in  all  things,  in  art,  life,  nature,  and  literature. 

Minor  English   Writers 

The  list  of  German  enthusiasts  who  were  directly  or  in- 
directly influenced  by  De  V Allemagne  in  their  study  of 
German  culture,  might  be  prolonged  to  great  length  ;  let  it 
suffice  here  to  mention  but  a  few  of  the  important  imitators. 
George  Eliot,  translator  of  Strauss's  Life  of  Jesus,  of 
Feuerbach's  Essence  of  Christianity,  and  of  Spinoza's 
Ethics;  George  Henry  Lewes,  philosopher  and  literary 
critic,  who  devoted  ten  years  of  untiring  labor  to  the  com- 
position of  the  first  great  Life  of  Goethe  in  the  English 
language ;  Sir  Theodore  Martin,  translator  of  Faust,  of 
Goethe's  ballads,  Heine's  lyrics,  Schiller's  poems,  and  of 
dramas  from  Danish  writers,  as  Oehlenschlager  and 
Henrik  Hertz ;  William  Jerdan,  editor,  a  popular  writer 
for  numerous  periodicals,  and  founder  of  many  clubs  and 
societies,  as  the  "  Royal  Society  of  Literature,"  "  Royal 
Geographical  Society,"  "  Garrick  Club,"  "  Camden  So- 
ciety";  John  A.  Heraud,  who  tried  to  popularize  Schelling's 
philosophy  in  England,  and  author  of  Foreign  Aids 
to   Self-Intelligence; 1   John    Wilson    (Christopher  North), 

1  3  vols. 


250         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  at  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, author  of  Nodes  Ambrosiance  in  Blackwood's 
Edinburgh  Magazine,  and  of  the  Isle  of  Palms;  George 
Moir,  translator  of  Schiller's  Piccolomini,  Wallenstein,  and 
of  the  Thirty  Years'  War;  John  G.  Lockhart,  Scott's  son- 
in-law,  translator  of  Schlegel's  Lectures  on  History  of 
Literature,  author  of  Memoirs  of  Scott,  and  for  twenty- 
eight  years  editor  of  the  Quarterly  Review;  Dr.  William 
Whewell,  scholar,  President  of  the  "  Cambridge  Philosophi- 
cal Society,"  translator  of  German  lyrics,  of  Hermann  and 
Dorothea,  Auerbach's  The  Professor's  Wife,  and  of 
Architectural  Notes  on  German  Churches;  John  Stuart 
Blackie,  Professor  of  Greek  at  Edinburgh,  contributor  to 
Blackzvood's  and  to  the  Foreign  Quarterly  Review,  trans- 
lator of  Faust,  and  of  War  Songs  of  the  Germans,  and 
author  of  the  Wisdom  of  Goethe;  William  and  Mary 
Howitt,  authors  of  many  works  on  German  life  and  litera- 
ture; George  Soane,  first  translator  of  parts  of  Faust,  also 
a  prolific  translator  of  German  romances;  Thomas  B. 
Macaulay,  who  contributed  many  important  reviews  on 
German  literature;  Francis  L.  Gower,  translator  of  Faust 
and  of  Schiller's  Song  of  the  Bell  and  other  lyrics ;  Edgar  B. 
Lytton,  translator  of  Schiller's  poems  and  ballads;  Edgar 
A.  Bowring,  translator  of  Goethe's  The  Wayzvard  Lover, 
the  Fellow  Culprit,  Hermann  and  Dorothea,  and  of  his 
poems;  William  Hazlitt,  Jr.,  writer,  barrister,  translator 
of  Luther's  Table  Talk;  Anna  Swanwick,  the  gifted  lyrical 
translator  of  several  Goethean  works,  Faust,  Iphigenie, 
Tasso,  and  Egmont.  With  this  we  turn  our  attention  to 
the  American  men  of  letters  who  have  been  influenced  by 
the  culture  of  Germany. 


America  251 

America 
George  Ticknor  (1791-1871) 

In  Part  I,  chapter  I,  it  was  stated  that  Ticknor's  first 
interest  in  German  literature  came  through  the  perusal  of 
De  I ' Allemagne ,  and  his  account  of  his  early  efforts  in  ac- 
quiring some  knowledge  of  German  and  of  his  determina- 
tion to  study  at  Gottingen  was  quoted.  This  was  in  18 13-14. 
In  order  to  prepare  himself  better  for  this  European  study, 
the  young  lawyer  first  traveled  through  his  own  country. 
In  1815,  in  company  with  his  young  friend  Edward  Everett, 
he  sailed  for  Germany,  arriving  in  Gottingen  August  4. 
At  that  time  the  University  of  Gottingen  was  one  of  the 
leading  institutions  in  Germany,  renowned  for  its  many 
distinguished  teachers  and  scholars.  Under  them  Ticknor 
learned  the  distinction  between  mere  formal  recitation  and 
inspiring  and  thorough  teaching.  Of  Dr.  Schulze  he  wrote 
to  his  father,  Nov.  10,  1815 :  "Every  day  I  feel  anew, 
under  the  oppressive  weight  of  his  admirable  acquirements, 
what  a  mortifying  distance  there  is  between  a  European 
and  an  American  scholar."  x 

While  a  student  at  Gottingen,  Ticknor  with  Everett  made 
a  trip  through  North  Germany,  visiting  Goethe  at  Weimar.2 
In  Paris  he  was  a  frequent  guest  at  the  home  of  Mme.  de 
Stael  and  her  daughter,  the  Duchesse  de  Broglie,  and  was 
the  close  friend  and  correspondent  of  Auguste  de  Stael, 
Mme.  de  Stael's  eldest  son.:! 

On  the  occasion  of  General  Lafayette's  visit  to  the  United 
States  in  August  1824,  Ticknor,  then  Professor  of  French 

1  Life,  Letters,  and  Journals,  I,  p.  73. 
■I,  pp.   1 14-16. 
8 1,  pp.  127-33. 


252         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

and  Spanish  at  Harvard,  wrote  a  long  article  on  the  illus- 
trious hero  for  the  North  American  Review.  It  was  after- 
ward translated  into  French  and  found  a  wide  circulation. 
Through  Lafayette,  Ticknor's  attention  was  directed  to  two 
German  refugees,  scholarly  men,  who  were  seeking  employ- 
ment. Through  his  influence,  one  of  these  men,  Dr.  Beck, 
obtained  a  position  at  the  Round  Hill  School,  and  later  was 
appointed  Professor  of  Latin  at  Harvard.  The  other,  Dr. 
Follen,  was  made  teacher  of  German  in  Ticknor's  own  de- 
partment. Five  years  later  he  became  Professor  of  the 
German  Language  and  Literature,  where,  through  his  mod- 
est, yet  zealous  efforts,  he  inspired  a  love  for  German 
scholarship. 

Very  soon  after  Ticknor  had  entered  on  his  professorial 
work,  he  felt  himself  hampered  by  the  general  conditions 
of  instruction  and  discipline  at  Cambridge.  To  remove  the 
deficiencies  of  the  system,  he  advocated  the  introduction 
of  a  number  of  reforms  after  the  model  of  the  free  uni- 
versities of  Germany.  The  proposed  changes  were  vital 
and  far-reaching,  for  they  were  the  lever  that  started  to 
raise  Flarvard  College  from  a  mere  school  to  university 
rank.  In  a  pamphlet  entitled  Remarks  on  the  Changes 
Lately  Proposed  or  Adopted  in  Harvard  College,1  Ticknor 
expresses  his  aims  and  views.  The  time  of  study  was  too 
short,  too  many  vacations  and  holidays  allowed ;  in  fact, 
four  and  one-half  months,  or  over  two-fifths  of  the  time  at 
college,  was  an  "  inevitable  vacation."  From  twenty  weeks 
and  two  days,  Ticknor  succeeded  in  having  the  vacation 
reduced  to  fifteen  and  one-half  weeks ;  but  even  that,  in 
his  opinion,  afforded  too  much  dissipation  of  mind.  Then 
the  modes  of  instruction  were  very  imperfect.  Instead  of 
grading  students  according  to  ability,  they  were  put   into 

1  Boston,  1825,  48  pp. 


America  253 

classes  in  an  alphabetical  system,  according  to  their  sur- 
names. Through  Ticknor,  the  division  of  classes  for  reci- 
tation was  made  according  to  proficiency.  A  student  could 
now  work  as  fast  as  his  talents  and  industry  allowed.  By 
this  means  the  standard  of  instruction  was  raised,  and  the 
discipline  improved,  "  for  the  best  moral  discipline  of  stu- 
dents is  that  which  is  laid  in  the  careful  and  wise  occupa- 
tion of  all  their  time  and  powers."  1  In  class  recitation  a 
reform  was  also  instituted.  In  three-fourths  of  an  hour 
an  instructor  could  examine  but  superficially  a  class  of 
sixty.  Hence  the  students  learned  a  given  book  and  not 
the  subject.  Ticknor  urged  departmental  work  as  a  remedy. 
The  college  instruction  was  divided  into  departments ;  at 
the  head  of  each  was  a  supervising  teacher  responsible  for 
the  character  and  work  of  his  instructors  and  for  the 
progress  of  his  students.  Each  student  had  now  to  learn 
a  subject,  not  merely  a  book,  and  to  work  according  to  his 
capacity.  Thus  he  took  more  interest  in  his  work  and 
aimed  to  obtain  knowledge  suitable  for  his  future  life. 
Especially  was  this  true,  when  he  had  the  election  of  his 
studies.  Ticknor's  desire  for  "  unlimited "  election  has 
certainly  been  fulfilled.  Another  subject  discussed  was  the 
means  of  discipline.  For  tardiness  or  for  absence  from 
prayers  a  system  of  petty  fines  was  imposed,  a  punishment 
for  the  parent  rather  than  the  student.  In  extreme  cases 
expulsion,  rustication,  dismissal,  or  suspension  was  used. 
In  seventeen  years  with  less  than  fourteen  hundred  pupils, 
the  college  had  resorted  to  such  punishment  in  three  hun- 
dred sixty-four  cases,  about  one-fifth  of  its  total  num- 
ber of  students.  Instead  of  so  much  punishment  Ticknor 
advocated  more  prevention.  He  succeeded  in  abolishing 
the  system  of  petty  fines,  in  making  use  of  parental  influ- 

1  P.  40. 


254         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ence,  and  in  introducing  a  quiet  dismissal  of  incorrigible 
students.  According  to  Professor  Norton  the  annual  ex- 
aminations had  been  a  "  nugatory  show."  Now,  through 
Ticknor's  influence,  the  board  of  examiners  was  paid  by 
the  college  and  required  to  make  a  thorough  examination 
and  send  in  a  signed  and  detailed  report,  which  was  to  be 
published  for  public  perusal.  But  the  greatest  reform  was 
the  necessity  of  thorough  teaching,  of  which  Ticknor  was 
himself  a  living  example.  The  instructor  was  not  merely 
to  hear  lessons,  but  to  teach  them,  to  explain,  comment,  and 
illustrate  the  subject  and  to  encourage  and  inspire  his 
students  in  learning.  Ticknor  declared  that  not  one  of 
the  best  colleges  did  one-half  of  what  it  should  do  "  to 
encourage,  enable,  and  compel  the  students  to  learn  what 
they  ought  to  learn,  and  what  they  easily  might  learn."  In 
America  it  cost  more  money  to  get  an  imperfect  education 
than  in  Europe  to  enjoy  the  best  advantages  of  the  best 
institutions.  To  become  a  good  Greek  or  Latin  scholar,  a 
student  would  need  to  go  abroad,  for  he  could  not  obtain 
at  home  the  thorough  instruction  that  would  enable  him  to 
acquire  distinction  later  in  his  department.  As  far  as  the 
small  colleges  were  concerned  they  were  excusable  in  this 
respect,  because  of  lack  of  means.  Harvard,  however,  with 
abundant  resources  had  no  excuse.  '  The  young  men," 
says  Ticknor,  "  may  be  taught  as  well  as  examined."  Its 
apparatus,  libraries,  instruments,  collections,  professors, 
and  tutors  can  be  turned  to  better  account,  and  produce 
more  valuable  results.  The  increasing  demands  of  the 
country  must  be  met,  the  educational  institutions  must  ful- 
fill the  wants  and  spirit  of  the  age,  must  grow,  otherwise 
"  when  the  period  for  more  important  alterations  has  come, 
and  free  universities  are  demanded  and  called  forth  .  .  . 
instead  of  being  able  to  place  themselves  at  the  head  of  the 


America  255 

coming  changes,  and  directing  their  course,  they  will  only 
be  the  first  victims  of  the  spirit  of  improvement."  *  Har- 
vard wisely  listened  to  the  voice  of  the  seer,  and,  casting 
away  ancient  traditions,  it  kept  pace  with  the  trend  of 
the  times  and  maintained  its  educational  leadership. 
Thomas  W.  Higginson  could  truly  say  that  Ticknor  was 
one  of  the  four  young  men  who  "  laid  the  foundation  of 
non-English  training  not  only  in  Boston,  but  in  America  " 
by  "  taking  the  whole  American  educational  system  away 
from  the  English  tradition  and  substituting  the  German 
methods."  2 

In  the  summer  of  1832  Ticknor  delivered  a  lecture  on 
teaching  the  living  languages,  before  the  "  American  In- 
stitute." The  methods  he  advocated  then  are  now  growing 
in  favor.  He  maintained  that  the  aim  in  teaching  a  living 
language  was  a  speaking  knowledge,  for  "  he  will  always  be 
found  best  able  to  read  and  enjoy  the  great  writers  in  a  for- 
eign language,  who,  in  studying  it, — whether  his  progress  has 
been  little  or  much, — has  never  ceased  to  remember  that 
it  is  a  living  and  a  spoken  tongue."  3  When  in  1835  he 
resigned  his  professorship,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Chas.  Davies, 
wherein  he  reviews  the  history  of  the  college  and  shows 
how  the  reforms  he  had  advocated  had  been  adopted  with 
success  in  the  modern  language  departments.4 

Until  his  death  Ticknor  was  most  active  in  service  to 
others.  In  him  America  lost  a  great  cosmopolitan  scholar, 
a  clear-sighted  philanthropist,   an   inspiring   educator,   and 

1  P.  46. 

2  Atlantic  Monthly,  LXXIX,  p.  490,  Apr.,  1897.  Cf.  Ticknor,  I, 
p.  7,  and  Faust:  The  German  Element  in  the  U.  S.,  II,  pp.  209  and 
358. 

•  Life,  I,  pp.  393-94- 
4  I,  p.  400. 


256         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

an  earnest  patriot;  a  man  who  dared  to  take  the  first  step 
in  the  onward  march  of  American  culture. 


Edward  Everett  (1794-1865) 

With  George  Ticknor  at  Gottingen  was  his  great  friend 
Edward  Everett,  who  had  been  for  two  years  a  Unitarian 
pastor  at  Brattle  Street  Church  in  Boston,  was  the  author 
of  a  Defence  of  Christianity  and  the  newly-appointed 
Professor  of  Greek  at  Harvard  (1814).  After  Everett 
had  traveled  in  Great  Britain  (1818),  he  wrote  home  that 
America  had  little  to  learn  from  the  English  universities, 
but  much  from  the  German  institutions  of  learning.  For 
a  time  he  traveled  with  Victor  Cousin  in  Germany,  and  that 
classical  Frenchman  did  homage  to  his  companion's  learn- 
ing by  declaring  "  he  was  the  best  Grecian  he  ever  knew." 
On  Everett's  return  to  America  he  brought  with  him  many 
German  books,  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  German 
library  at  Harvard.  About  the  same  time  the  library  of 
the  great  German  geographer,  Professor  Ebeling  of  Ham- 
burg, was  purchased  by  Mr.  Thorndike  of  Boston,  against 
the  competition  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  As  Eliot  Professor 
of  Greek  at  Harvard  (1819-24),  Everett  translated  from 
the  German  Buttmann's  Greek  Grammar,  and  wrote  a 
Greek  reader  based  on  that  of  Jacob's.  Emerson  in  his 
Historic  Notes  1  has  given  us  a  graphic  picture  of  the 
inspiration  he  exerted  on  his  classes.  He  says :  "  Germany 
had  created  criticism  in  vain  for  us  until  1820,  when  Ed- 
ward Everett  returned  from  his  five  years  in  Europe,  and 
brought  to  Cambridge  his  rich  results,  which  no  one  was  so 
fitted  by  natural  grace  and  the  splendor  of  his  rhetoric  to 
introduce  and  recommend.  He  made  us  for  the  first  time 
1  Lectures  and  Biographical  Sketches,  X,  pp.  312-16. 


America  257 

acquainted  with  Wolff's  theory  of  the  Homeric  writings, 
with  the  criticism  of  Heyne.  The  novelty  of  the  learning 
lost  nothing  in  the  skill  and  genius  of  the  relater,  and  the 
rudest  undergraduate  found  a  new  morning  opened  to  him 
in  the  lecture-room  of  Harvard  Hall." 

In  addition  to  his  work  as  a  teacher  Everett  gave  many 
lectures  of  a  popular  nature  in  which  he  set  forth  the 
help  he  had  received  from  Goethe,  Schelling,  Oken,  and 
Hegel.  Of  these  Emerson  again  says :  "  By  a  series  of  lec- 
tures largely  and  fashionably  attended  for  two  winters  in 
Boston,  he  made  a  beginning  of  popular  literary  and  mis- 
cellaneous lectures  which  in  that  region  at  least  had  im- 
portant results.  It  is  acquiring  greater  importance  every 
day,  and  becoming  a  national  institution.  I  am  quite  cer- 
tain that  this  purely  literary  influence  was  of  the  first 
importance  to  the   American  mind." 

On  Aug.  26,  1824,  Everett  delivered  an  address  on 
American  Literature  before  the  '  Phi  Beta  Kappa  So- 
ciety "  of  Harvard.  It  is  highly  important,  as  it  shows  his 
keen  grasp  of  the  situation  of  his  day,  his  firm  belief  in  the 
higher  education  of  the  people  and  in  the  responsibility  rest- 
ing upon  the  scholar  as  a  leader  of  the  people,  a  belief  which 
seems  to  have  been  inspired  by  his  study  of  Fichte's  ideal 
of  the  scholar  and  his  national  mission. 

"  It  is  by  the  intellect  of  the  country,"  is  his  slogan,  "  that 
the  mighty  mass  is  to  be  inspired ;  that  its  parts  are  to  com- 
municate and  sympathize  with  each  other,  its  natural  prog- 
ress to  be  adorned  with  becoming  refinements ;  its  prin- 
ciples asserted  and  its  feelings  interpreted  to  its  own  chil- 
dren, to  other  regions,  and  to  after  ages." 

From  1846  to  1849  Everett  was  president  of  Harvard 
and  helped  to  pave  the  way  for  modern  methods  of  study 
and  educational  reforms.    At  his  inauguration  he  delivered 


258         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

an  address  on  the  Objects  of  a  University  Education, 
which  shows  the  influence  of  the  German  university  idea 
as  developed  by  W.  von  Humboldt,  Fichte,  and  Schleier- 
macher.  Everett  defines  these  objects  as  follows:  "The 
acquisition  of  knowledge  in  the  various  branches  of  science 
and  literature,  as  a  general  preparation  for  the  learned 
professions  and  the  other  liberal  pursuits  of  life;  in  the 
process  of  acquiring  this  knowledge,  the  exercise  and  de- 
velopment of  the  intellectual  faculties,  as  a  still  more  im- 
portant part  of  the  great  business  of  preparation ;  the  for- 
mation of  a  pure  and  manly  character,  exhibiting  that 
union  of  moral  and  intellectual  qualities  which  most  com- 
mands confidence,  respect,  and  love." 

In  1824  Everett  entered  political  life  as  a  member  of 
Congress,  and  his  distinguished  accomplishments  as  a 
statesman  almost  overshadowed  his  literary  and  scientific 
work.  As  minister,  educator,  lecturer,  statesman,  and 
orator  Everett's  life  and  work  were  a  glorious  example  of 
unremitting  service  to  the  people. 

George  Bancroft  (1800-1891) 

While  a  freshman  at  Harvard,  Bancroft  met  Edward 
Everett,  then  tutor  in  Latin.  Later,  after  Everett  had  been 
made  Professor  of  Greek,  a  strong  friendship  arose  between 
the  teacher  and  student.  Inspired  by  Everett,  Bancroft 
read  many  works  upon  German  literature,  philosophy,  and 
theology.  Upon  Everett's  recommendation,  a  traveling 
scholarship  of  seven  hundred  dollars  per  annum  for  three 
years  was  awarded  Bancroft  for  the  purpose  of  theological 
study  at  Gottingen.  On  June  27,  1818,  he  left  Boston, 
arriving  in  Gottingen  the  early  part  of  October.  Equipped 
with  many  letters  of  introduction  from  Everett  and  Ticknor, 


America  259 

Bancroft  was  welcomed  most  heartily  in  the  German  uni- 
versity town.  Here  he  studied  under  many  distinguished 
men,1  making  use  of  every  opportunity  to  acquire  fluency 
in  German  expression  as  well  as  knowledge  of  facts.  On 
June  27  of  the  following  year  he  delivered  a  sermon  in 
the  German  language,  the  manuscript  of  which  is  still  in 
existence.  About  the  same  time  religious  doubts  arose  in 
his  mind,  and  he  wrote  to  Everett,  asking  whether  it  would 
not  be  well  to  study  history  in  connection  with  his  philology, 
church  history,  and  theology,  adding :  "  Several  gentlemen 
in  Boston  are  desirous,  I  should  become  acquainted  with 
the  German  Schulwesen,  and  on  coming  home  set  up  a 
high  school  on  the  European  plan." 2  Upon  Everett's 
reply  Bancroft  devoted  himself  almost  exclusively  to  the 
pursuit  of  history,  which  was  of  the  utmost  importance 
for  his  future  career. 

After  his  arrival  in  Gottingen  Bancroft  studied  very  dili- 
gently the  works  of  Schiller  and  of  Goethe,  even  translating 
some  of  their  poems  into  English  verse.  For  Schiller  Ban- 
croft has  nothing  but  words  of  commendation  for  his  love  of 
humanity,  zeal  for  freedom,  and  social  progress,  search 
for  truth  and  purity  of  life  and  character.  With  Goethe's 
classic  and  aesthetic  outlook  on  life  and  broad  tolerant  views 
of  progressive  religion,  Bancroft's  narrow  and  provincial 
Puritanic  ideas  and  rearing  came  into  violent  clash.  He 
writes  in  his  diary :  "  I  am  only  more  and  more  astonished 
at  the  indecency  and  immorality  of  the  latter.  He  appears  to 
prefer  to  represent  vice  as  lovely  and  to  excite  sympathy 
rather  than  virtue,  and  would  rather  take  for  his  heroine 

1  See  letter  of  Oct.  3,  1818,  to  his  father,  Rev.  Aaron  Bancroft, 
in  Life  and  Letters,  edited  by  M.  A.  DeWolfe  Howe,  I,  pp.  46-47, 
2  vols.,  New  York,  1908. 

2  Life,  I,  p.  65. 


260         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

a  prostitute  or  a  profligate,  than  give  birth  to  that  purity 
of  thought  and  loftiness  of  soul,  which  it  is  the  peculiar 
duty  of  the  poet  to  raise,  by  connecting  his  inventions  with 
the  actions  of  heroes  and  embodying  in  verse  the  merits 
of  the  benefactors  of  mankind." 1  This  condemnatory 
opinion  was  greatly  changed,  however,  in  his  essay  on  the 
Life  and  Genius  of  Goethe  for  the  North  American  Review 
of  October  1824.2  In  it  he  says:  "  But  the  works  of  Goethe 
are  not  without  lessons  of  practical  morality.  Though  he 
makes  no  boasts  of  being  himself  a  religious  man,  he  ac- 
knowledges religion  to  be  essentially  the  best  foundation 
of  a  good  character  and  considers  cooperation  with  others 
in  works  of  practical  utility,  and  in  the  execution  of  just 
and  righteous  designs,  the  safest  and  the  happiest  course. 
He  has  also  drawn  many  exquisite  and  elevating  pictures 
of  female  excellence,  has  illustrated  the  superiority  of 
domestic  life,  and  has  given  the  noblest  encomiums  to  that 
sex,  which  knows  how  to  establish  order  and  economy,  to 
feel,  and  to  endure.  '  Ye  call  woman  fickle,'  says  he,  '  ye 
err ;  she  but  roams  in  search  of  a  steadfast  man.' ' 

Goethe,  to  whom  George  Calvert 3  had  given  a  copy, 
sent  his  thanks  to  the  author  and  declared:  "This  essay 
has  a  good  effect  upon  everybody :  so  much  intellect  and 
insight,  joined  with  a  youthfully  cheerful  enjoyment  in 
writing,  excites  a  certain  sympathetic,  pleasant  feeling." 4 
In  common  with  all  American  students  Bancroft  utilized 
his  vacations  in  making  trips  to  different  parts  of  Germany, 

1  Life,  I,  p.  38. 

2  XIX,  pp.  303-25- 

3  Life,  I,  p.  182. 

4  Ibid.,  I,  p.  182.  Cf.  also  his  letter  to  Andrews  Norton  from 
Paris,  July  18,  1821,  in  regard  to  Weimar,  where  Goethe's  influence 
was  paramount.  "  Weimar  is  the  only  place  I  know  of  worthy  of 
commemoration  for  its  staid  morality."     Life,  I,  p.  in. 


America  261 

and  in  meeting  the  great  men  of  the  time.  In  Jena  he  first 
met  Goethe,  Oct.  12,  1819,  and  found  him  very  talkative 
and  affable.  The  following  day  he  went  to  Weimar  and 
visited  Goethe's  home  and  family.1  Before  his  final  de- 
parture he  visited  Goethe  twice  in  Weimar,  March  7  and 
May  5,  1821.2 

After  receiving  his  doctor's  degree  on  Sept.  19, 
1820,  Bancroft  went  to  Berlin  for  the  winter  semester, 
studying  under  Boeckh,  Wolf,  Hegel,  and  Buttmann.  In 
November  he  wrote  a  letter  to  President  Kirkland  con- 
trasting the  two  universities  and  describing  the  Prussian 
school  system. 

'  I  have  already  been  here  about  six  weeks,  and  find 
abundant  cause  of  joy  for  having  come  here.  *  The  char- 
acter of  the  men  of  letters  is  quite  the  reverse  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  Gottingen  professors.  There  an  abhorrence 
is  felt  for  all  innovations ;  here  the  new,  that  is  good  or 
promises  to  lead  to  good,  cannot  be  too  soon  adopted.  At 
Gottingen  the  whole  tendency  of  the  courses  is,  to  make  the 
students  learned,  to  fill  their  memories  with  matters  of 
fact ;  here  the  great  aim  is  to  make  them  think.  At  Got- 
tingen experience  stands  in  good  repute,  and  men  are  most 
fond  of  listening  to  her  voice ;  but  at  Berlin  experience  is 
a  word  not  to  be  pronounced  too  often ;  speculation  is 
looked  on  as  the  prime  source  of  truth.  At  Gottingen  the 
men  are  engaged  in  growing  learned  and  writing  useful 
books,  which  demonstrate  their  erudition;  at  Berlin  the 
professors  are  perhaps  quite  as  learned,  but  more  accus- 
tomed to  reflection,  and  you  may  find  many  of  their  books, 
to  have  written  which  a  prodigious  degree  of  erudition  was 
required,  and  which  yet  do  not  contain  a  single  citation. 

1  Life,  I,  pp.  67-69. 

2  Ibid.,  I,  pp.  97-99. 


262         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Certainly  Gottingen  is  the  best  place  to  gather  genuine 
learning,  but  I  hardly  think  a  man  would  learn  there  how 
to  use  it  properly.  .  .  ." 

Before  returning  to  America  Bancroft  visited  Paris  and 
London.  A  letter  to  President  Kirkland  dated  London, 
Aug.  17,  1821,  in  which  he  describes  Parisian  life,  is  of 
highest  value,  as  it  shows  the  feelings  entertained  by 
Europeans  toward  these  early  American  scholars,  and  how 
much  they  contributed  to  a  foreign  appreciation  of  Ameri- 
can culture. 

Soon  afterward  Bancroft  made  a  tour  through  the 
Alps  to  Milan.  While  there  he  wrote  in  his  Diary 
a  little  essay  on  schools,  which  is  of  utmost  impor- 
tance as  showing  the  effect  of  the  new  educational  ideas 
which  he  had  found  in  Germany.  It  reads  thus:  1.  In 
reflecting  on  establishing  a  school  on  a  large  foundation ;  it 
appears  to  me  that  something  new  might  be  undertaken 
with  usefulness  and  advantage.  Greek  should  be  the  first 
language  taught ;  it  would  be  easy  to  procure  or  to  make 
the  necessary  works  for  that.  A  translation  of  French's 
small  grammar;  and  of  Jacob's  Handbook  would  be  suffi- 
cient for  a  commencement.  2.  Natural  History  should  be 
taught ;  it  quickens  all  the  powers  and  creates  the  faculty 
of  accurate  observation.  Even  in  the  town  schools  so  much 
of  natural  history  as  relates  to  the  plants  of  husbandry  and 
weeds  which  torment  the  farmer,  ought  to  be  taught  simply 
and  thoroughly  to  every  boy,  and  most  of  all  to  the  poorest 
whose  lot  it  is  to  till  the  earth.  3.  Emulation  must  be  most 
carefully  avoided,  excepting  the  general  and  mutual  desire 
of  excellence  in  virtue.  No  one  ought  to  be  awarded  at 
the  expense  of  another,  and  even  where  there  is  nothing 
but  prizes,  they  who  fail  of  gaining  them,  may  have  been 
impeded  by  the  nature  of  their  talents  and  not  by  their 


America  263 

own  want  of  exertion.  4.  Corporal  punishments  must  be 
abolished  as  degrading  the  individual,  who  receives  them, 
and  as  encouraging  the  base  passions  of  fear  and  deception. 
5.  Classes  must  be  formed  according  to  the  characters  and 
capacities  of  each  individual  boy.  6.  Country  school- 
masters might  be  formed  with  little  expense  by  annexing 
to  the  school  an  institution  for  orphans,  to  be  educated  for 
schoolmasters.  Of  these  the  best  might  be  chosen  for  a 
learned  discipline  and  be  fitted  for  taking  care  of  academies. 
7.  Eventually  a  vast  printing  establishment  might  be  an- 
nexed to  the  school."  x 

After  his  return  from  Europe  Bancroft  was  tutor  in 
Greek  for  a  year  at  Harvard,  where  he  aided  in  reorganizing 
the  methods  of  teaching  Greek  in  that  institution.  He 
also  preached  occasionally.  His  sermons  show  a  decided 
ethical  and  philosophical  bent.  But  the  Germanized  student, 
who  had  not  read  an  English  book  during  his  life  abroad, 
did  not  feel  satisfied  in  his  narrow  theological  surround- 
ings. 

In  1 819  Bancroft  met  Joseph  Cogswell  in  Dresden. 
Like  Bancroft,  Cogswell,  who  was  librarian  and  professor 
of  mineralogy  and  geology,  was  discontented  in  his  position. 
Together  the  two  determined  to  found  a  preparatory  school 
for  boys.  This  plan  was  warmly  approved  of  by  Everett, 
Ticknor,  and  President  Kirkland.  In  fact  as  early  as 
1819  Everett  had  suggested  it  in  a  letter  to  Bancroft. 
"  Could  you  have  a  liberal  and  proper  support,  I  know  no 
better  place  for  you  than  a  learned  school,  and  the  College 
would  be  indebted  to  you  for  the  most  important  aid  in 
carrying  into  execution  the  projecting  reforms  in  educa- 
tion. We  can  do  nothing  at  Cambridge  till  we  contrive  the 
means  of  having  the  boys  sent  to  us  far  better  fitted  than 

1  Life,  I,  p.  129. 


264         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

they  are  now."  *  As  has  already  been  noted  this  idea  had 
been  constantly  before  Bancroft's  mind  in  his  European 
study  and  travel.  In  a  letter  to  Eliot,  dated  Cambridge, 
Dec.  3,  1822,  Bancroft  discusses  his  plan  and  says: 
"  I  have  consulted  the  nature  of  high  schools,  grammar 
schools,  gymnasia,  classical  schools,  and  the  like ;  I  have 
consulted  the  books  which  treat  of  education ;  I  have  re- 
flected on  the  means  and  end  of  education.  Now  I  am 
going  to  turn  schoolmaster.  I  long  to  become  an  inde- 
pendent man,  namely  a  man,  who  lives  by  his  own  labors. 
Mr.  Cogswell 2  has  seen  so  much  of  the  world,  that  he 
knows  its  folly:  he  will  join  me  in  my  scheme:  we  will 
together  establish  a  school,  the  end  of  which  is  to  be  the 
moral  and  intellectual  maturity  of  the  mind  of  each  boy 
we  take  charge  of ;  and  the  means  are  to  be  first  and  fore- 
most instruction  in  the  classics.3  The  prospectus  issued  by 
the  two  educators  June  20,  1820,  shows  the  influence  of 
the  educational  ideas  of  Germany.  This  school  was  to  be 
established  at  Round  Hill,  near  the  Connecticut  River,  and 
one-half  mile  from  the  village  of  Northampton.  It  thus 
offered  the  advantage  of  country  life.  "  We  need  retire- 
ment," says  Bancroft,  "'  if  we  would  educate  boys  to  be 
scholars."  As  in  a  French  college  or  a  German  gymnasium, 
the  boy  would  begin  at  the  age  of  nine  to  learn  his  modern 
language,  so  as  to  attain  purity  of  pronunciation.  No  pupil 
over  twelve  would  be  accepted  in  the  institution,  for  the 
habits  of  study  which  the  educators  would  form,  differed 
essentially  from  prevailing  ones.  The  aim  was  to  produce 
mental  activity  by  other  motives  than  fear  or  emulation. 
By  parental  government,  persuasion,  and  persevering  kind- 

1  Life,  I,  p.  166.     See  I,  pp.  54,  65,  91,  128. 

2  Cogswell  was  fourteen  years  older  than  Bancroft. 

3  Life,  I,  p.  162. 


America  265 

ness,  by  strong  moral  discipline,  the  character  of  each  youth 
would  be  developed.  If  such  means  failed,  then  the  youth 
was  dismissed.  To  insure  personal  attention  to  each  boy, 
the  school  was  at  first  limited  to  twenty  pupils.  There  were 
but  two  vacations,  of  three  weeks  each,  at  the  winter  and  the 
summer  solstice.  All  other  recreations  were  provided  for 
by  the  instructors;  such  as  short  journeys  by  foot  or  wagon, 
for  study  and  observation.  The  studies  to  be  pursued 
were  those  considered  essential  to  a  liberal  education,  and 
to  a  practical  training  for  the  world — studies  necessary  to 
make  loyal  and  useful  citizens.  They  were  English,  litera- 
ture, history,  science,  mathematics,  geography,  Latin,  Greek 
(elective),  and  modern  languages — French,  German,  Ital- 
ian, and  Spanish.  To  the  man  of  business,  the  traveler, 
the  student  of  modern  history  and  politics,  these  languages 
were  perhaps  "  the  most  valuable."  In  addition,  gym- 
nastic work  was  given  daily,  as  in  the  Swiss  and  German 
schools.  The  principles  of  natural  ethics  and  religion  were 
taught  in  daily  devotional  exercises  and  in  the  constant 
study  of  the  poets,  often  better  moralists  than  many  so- 
called  ethical  writers.  The  creation  of  a  taste  for  reading 
and  for  reflection  was  fostered  by  the  use  of  a  large  and 
well-selected  library  and  by  informal  talks  and  discussion. 
In  short,  the  purpose  of  the  institution  was  to  help  the 
rising  generation  to  be  more  virtuous,  intellectual,  and 
happy  than  it  otherwise  would  have  been. 

In  this  enterprise  Bancroft  did  much  of  the  teaching 
and  directing  the  work  of  'the  assistant  instructors,  while 
Cogswell  was  father  of  the  community  and  the  general 
manager.  The  instruction  was  by  no  means  confined  to 
books ;  there  were  sketching  and  riding  classes ;  the  boys 
farmed  and  built  small  houses ;  they  had  an  annual  camp- 
ing trip ;  every  possible  means  was  employed  to  develop  the 


266        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

boy's  outer  and  inner  life;  and  the  new  theories  of  Pesta- 
lozzi  and  Fellenberg  found  realization  on  American  soil. 
By  1830  Bancroft's  ardor  as  schoolmaster  had  abated  some- 
what;  he  sold  out  his  interest  to  Cogswell,  who  paid  him 
a  salary  for  his  seven  years'  service  as  teacher.1  He  re- 
mained at  Round  Hill  a  year  longer  as  a  paid  instructor. 
The  institution  was  continued  for  a  few  years  by  Cogs- 
well alone,  and  then  abandoned  because  of  his  failing  health 
and  financial  losses.  It  was,  however,  the  first  serious 
effort  in  the  United  States  to  elevate  secondary  education 
to  a  higher  plane.  In  the  history  of  American  intellectual 
progress  it  stands  out  as  the  embodiment  of  idealism  and 
modernity  in  culture,  as  a  great  initiative  force  in  diffus- 
ing German  educational  ideas  of  discipline,  of  stimulating 
interest,  and  of  attention  to  the  individual.2 

While  Bancroft  was  at  Round  Hill,  he  found  time  to 
write  many  articles  for  the  North  American  Review,5  the 
Boston  Quarterly  Review,  and  for  Walsh's  American 
Quarterly.  Many  of  them  were  on  German  life  and  litera- 
ture, as  the  article  already  mentioned,  Life  and  Genius  of 
Goethe.*  His  poetic  talent  found  expression  in  transla- 
tions and  in  a  volume  of  poems  (1823)  which  in  after  life 
he  zealously  sought  to  destroy.  In  1824  appeared  his  ver- 
sion of  Buttmann's  Greek  Grammar  5  and  of  Heeren's  Re- 
flections   on    the    Politics    of    Ancient    Greece*     Edward 

1  See  Life,  I,  p.  65,  where  he  says  in  1819  he  would  not  care  to 
be  associated  many  years  with  a  school. 

2  See  Bancroft's  letter  to  Pres.  Eliot  of  Harvard,  July  4,  1871. 
8  He  wrote  seventeen  in  1823-24. 

4  See  also  Miscellanies:   Studies  in   German   Literature,  pp.   103- 
205. 
6  2nd  ed.  in  1826. 
6  2nd  ed.  in  1843;  3rd  ed.  in  1847. 


America  267 

Everett  wrote  concerning  this  in  the  North  American  Re- 
view: x  "  Mr.  Bancroft  deserves  the  public  thanks  for  trans- 
lating this  volume.  He  has  observed,  in  the  preface,  that 
the  translator's  task  is  an  humble  one.  It  may  be  made 
so ;  but  it  is.  not  necessarily  so.  This  translation  implies  a 
command,  not  only  of  the  German  language,  such  as  few 
possess,  but  an  accomplishment  of  still  greater  value,  a 
good  knowledge  of  the  English  tongue.  Nor  could  it  have 
been  executed  but  by  a  person  conversant  with  the  large 
range  of  classical  learning,  which  the  work  embraces.  To 
make  a  translation  of  such  a  work,  and  as  this  is  made,  is 
no  humble  exploit.  We  should  be  much  rejoiced,  and 
think  it  auspicious  of  good  to  the  literature  of  the  coun- 
try, if  Mr.  Bancroft  should  be  induced  by  the  reception  of 
this  volume,  to  translate  the  rest." 

The  wish  expressed  by  Everett  found  realization;  Ban- 
croft translated  Heeren's  States  of  Antiquity  (1828),  and 
his  Political  System  of  Europe  and  Its  Colonies  from  1492  to 
1776  (1828).2  In  a  review  of  the  States  of  Antiquity3 
a  critic  writes  that  to  Bancroft  "  the  lovers  of  learning  have 
long  felt  under  obligations,  for  the  various  exertions  he 
has  made  to  introduce  the  knowledge  of  German  literature 
among  us.  Of  this  literature  we  have  never  entertained 
but  one  opinion,  and  that  is,  that  the  hours,  which  the 
scholar  devotes  to  it  are  among  the  most  delightful  and 
profitable  of  his  life."  Besides  Heeren's  works,  Bancroft 
aided  Latin  instruction  by  translating  Ch.  F.  W.  Jacob's 
Latin  Reader  (1825)  4  and  Zumpt's  Latin  Grammar  (1829), 

1  XVIII,  pp.  290-406,  Apr.,  1824. 

2  2nd  ed.  in  1829. 

8  N.  A.  R.,  XXVIII,  pp.  186-203,  Jan.,  1829. 
4  New  editions  in  1832,  1833,  and  1835. 


268        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

and  by  adapting  from  the  German  edition  Cornelius  Nepos 
(1835)  for  American  pupils. 

Bancroft's  crowning  achievement,  of  course,  is  his  monu- 
mental History  of  the  United  States  in  ten  volumes,  a 
work  to  which  he  devoted  nearly  sixty  years  of  his  life. 
The  first  volume  appeared  in  print  in  1834,  the  tenth  in 
1875.  For  this  task  he  was  peculiarly  fitted,  thoroughly 
versed  in  the  histories  of  different  nations,  of  broad  scholar- 
ship, careful  and  systematic,  free  from  prejudices,  a 
patriotic  American  but  not  narrow  and  bigoted,  he  was 
scholar,  explorer,  philosopher,  and  rhetorician.  He  firmly 
believed  in  the  sequence  of  causes  and  effects,  that  the 
problems  of  politics  cannot  be  solved  without  passing 
behind  transient  forms  to  efficient  causes.  Thus  the 
American  Revolution  could  be  traced  back  to  the  Reforma- 
tion under  Luther  and  Calvin ;  for  the  emancipation  of 
thought  is  the  foundation  of  the  love  of  freedom.  Even  in 
such  devious  ways  did  his  early  German  training,  evident 
in  almost  all  of  his  undertakings,  manifest  itself.1 

Joseph  G.  Cogswell  (1786-1871) 

Dr.  Joseph  G.  Cogswell  studied  at  Gottingen  from 
November  1816  until  1819.  It  was  here  where  he  received 
his  doctor's  degree.  Ticknor  and  Edward  Everett  were 
also  at  Gottingen  during  this  period.  Although  studying 
the  necessary  history,  politics,  and  philosophy  for  his  doc- 
torate, Cogswell  found  time,  by  spending  ten  hours  in  the 
lecture-room  and  eight  in  study,  to  acquire  an  immense 
amount  of  information  on  all  subjects,  and,  as  he  said, 
to     '  lay    the    groundwork    for    more   thorough    geological, 

1  A  few  lines  might  be  subjoined  on  Bancroft's  partner  in  the 
Round  Hill  School  enterprise. 


America  269 

mineralogical,  and  botanical  knowledge."  Under  Benecke 
he  also  attained  practical  instruction  in  literary  organiza- 
tion, which  was  later  of  vast  help  to  him  as  librarian  at 
Harvard,  and  as  organizer  and  superintendent  of  the  Astor 
library. 

His  friends,  Ticknor  and  Everett,  had  visited  Goethe 
on  Oct.  25,  1816,  before  Cogswell's  arrival  in  Gottingen. 
Prepared  to  dislike  the  proud  and  haughty  German,  as  he 
conceived  Goethe  to  be,  Cogswell  visited  the  poet  the  fol- 
lowing April  at  Jena.  He  very  quickly  changed  his  mind ; 
in  mineralogy  the  two  men  found  a  subject  of  mutual 
interest.  Their  conversation  turned  on  America ;  Cogs- 
well declared  later  that  Goethe  made  juster  and  more  pro- 
found observations  than  he  had  ever  heard  from  any  other 
man  in  Europe.  From  that  time  until  his  return  to 
America  Cogswell  corresponded  with  Goethe,  especially  on 
mineralogical  matters.  Then  before  his  return  to  America 
two  more  visits  were  recorded.  On  May  10,  1819,  on  his 
way  from  Gottingen  to  Dresden,  he  stopped  in  Weimar  and 
spent  most  of  the  time  with  Goethe.  Again  in  August  he 
went  to  bid  Goethe  farewell ;  but  finding  that  he  was  in 
Jena,  journeyed  thither.  Through  Cogswell's  mediation, 
Goethe  presented  Harvard  College  with  thirty  volumes  of 
his  own  works. 

During  the  vacation  period  Cogswell  traveled  through- 
out Europe,  meeting  scientific  men  and  visiting  noted  in- 
stitutions. Among  the  latter  were  his  visits  to  Fellenberg's 
school  at  Hofwyl  (May  and  August  1818)  and  to  Pesta- 
lozzi's  school  at  Yverdun  (May  1818  and  Oct.  28, 
1819).  In  recognition  of  his  scientific  attainments  he 
was  made  a  member  of  the  "  Academy  of  Munich  "  and  of 
the  "  Helvetic  Society  of  Natural  History." 

After  his  return  to  America  in  1820,  he  was  appointed 


270         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

librarian  and  professor  of  mineralogy  and  geology  at  Har- 
vard. During  this  time  he  arranged  the  library  on  the 
same  plan  as  that  of  Gottingen,  which  won  the  applause  of 
his  friend  Ticknor.  In  1823  he  and  Bancroft  established 
the  Round  Hill  school.  Dr.  Cogswell  was  the  leading  fac- 
tor, and  put  into  practice  some  of  the  ideas  he  had  gained 
from  Pestalozzi  and  Fellenberg,  and  it  is  upon  this  under- 
taking, already  discussed  in  detail,  that  his  merit  as  a  me- 
diator between  German  and  American  civilization  is  to  be 
based. 

Alexander  H.   Everett  (1790-1847) 

Alexander  Everett  possessed  the  versatility  of  his 
brother  Edward.  While  secretary  of  the  American  lega- 
tion at  St.  Petersburg  (1809-12),  he  had  favorable  oppor- 
tunities for  becoming  acquainted  with  German  literature. 
Later  as  United  States  Minister  at  The  Hague  (1815-16. 
1818-24),  he  continued  his  study  and  observations  of  Eu- 
ropean life,  which  are  recorded  in  his  Europe,1  soon  trans- 
lated into  German,  French,  and  Spanish.  In  this  work 
he  devotes  a  chapter  to  "  Germany,  including  Austria  and 
Prussia,"  giving  a  highly  suggestive  comparison  of  the  Ger- 
many of  that  period  with  the  United  States. 

After  serving  five  years  as  Minister  to  Spain,  Everett 
became  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  also 
editor  and  proprietor  of  the  North  American  Review 
(1829-35).  During  his  own  editorship,  as  well  as  that  of 
his  brother  (1820-24),  he  contributed  numerous  articles 
to  the  magazine,  many  of  which  dealt  with  German  litera- 

1  Europe,  or  a  General  Survey  of  the  Situation  of  the  Principal 
Powers;  with  Conjectures  of  the  Future  Prospects,  by  a  Citizen  of 
the  United  States.     Boston,  1822. 

Cf.  Part  I,  chap,  i,  p.  20. 


America  271 

ture,  either  directly  or  incidentally.  Among  these  articles 
may  be  cited  those  on  Mme.  de  Stael  and  Schiller.  In  a 
review  of  Heinrich  Doering's  life  of  Schiller  (April  1823), 
Everett  commends  especially  the  "  pure  morality  "  of  his 
writings,  and  declares  it  is  "  a  great  happiness  for  a  nation, 
when  a  writer  like  Schiller,  whose  talents  secure  him  an 
unbounded  popularity  and  influence,  has  the  grace  to  exert 
them  uniformly  in  the  great  cause  of  virtue  and  human 
happiness.  No  compensation  in  the  power  of  subjects  or 
sovereigns  to  bestow  can  be  too  great  for  such  deserts : 
'  Quae  tibi,  quae  tali  reddam  pro  carmine  dona?  '  "  1 

Later,  as  confidential  agent  of  the  United  States  to  Cuba, 
as  president  of  Jefferson  College,  Louisiana,  and  as  Min- 
ister to  China,  he  continued  his  work  as  an  essayist. 

Among  the  magazines  where  his  articles  appeared  were 
the  Boston  Quarterly  Review,  United  States  Democratic 
Review,  the  Boston  Miscellany,  and  the  Southern  Quar- 
terly Review.  Among  the  translations  from,  and  articles 
on  German  literature  appearing  in  the  Democratic  Review, 
may  be  cited  The  Spectre  Bridegroom  (Burger),  The 
Worth  of  Woman  (Schiller),  The  Water-King,  a  Norse 
Legend,  Harro  Harring,  a  Biography,  and  The  Funeral 
of  Goethe  from  Harro  Harring.  In  a  note  to  Harro's 
poem  on  the  "  bard  of  the  lofty  rhyme  and  little  soul," 
Everett  says  it  is  very  curious  to  contrast  the  bitterness  and 
censure  of  the  German  poet  with  Carlyle's  excessive  admira- 
tion of  Goethe  as  the  first  poet  and  great  moral  and  re- 
ligious regenerator  of  modern  times.  He  thinks  the  friends 
of  Germany  have  cause  for  complaint  against  Goethe's 
indifference  in  the  War  of  Liberation.2 

1  Cf.    Critical  and   Miscellaneous  Essays,   I,   pp.    137-38,   Boston, 

1845. 

2  Cf.  Miscellanies,  I,  p.  55. 


2-J2         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

These  translations  show  that  Everett  possessed  the  poetic 
instinct.  As  an  illustration  of  his  ability  I  quote  a  stanza 
from  his  version  of  the  Dedication  to  Faust.1 

"  And  o'er  me  steals  a  long  unfelt  desire 
To  search  the  silent,  solemn  spirit-land  ; 
Low,  lisping  notes,  as  of  the  Lilian  lyre, 
Breathe  from  the  strings  beneath  my  wavering  hand; 
Tears  follow  fast  on  tears;  the  soul  of  fire 
Grows  faint  and  weak,  by  softness  all  unmann'd; 
And  the  fair  scenes,  in  whirh  my  lot  is  cast, 
Appear  like  dreams; — I  live  but  in  the  past." 

In  addition  to  articles  and  shorter  translations,  Everett 
also  rendered  into  English  the  History  of  the  World  2  of 
Johannes  von  Miiller,  the  historian  to  whom  Mme.  de  Stael 
had  called  especial  attention.  He  also  showed  original 
ability  as  a  historian  in  his  lives  of  Patrick  Henry  and 
Joseph  Warren. 

Like  his  brother,  Everett  enjoyed  considerable  fame  as 
an  orator.  An  address  to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  society  of 
Bowdoin  College  on  the  Present  State  of  Polite  Learning 
in  England  and  America,  delivered  Sept.  3,  1834,  is 
very  significant  of  his  profound  understanding  of  causes 
and  effects  and  of  the  literary  conditions  of  the  age.  He 
says  that  English  literature  is  distinguished  by  a  healthy 
vigor,  a  fresh  and  natural  expression  of  feeling,  by  force 
and  independence  of  thought,  and  by  a  comparative  care- 
lessness of  style.  The  popularity  of  learning,  the  im- 
portance of  novel  and  newspaper,  the  triumph  of  woman  in 
literature,  have  contributed  to  this  result.  Of  the  most 
brilliant  group  Lord  Byron  is  "  decidedly  the  most  remark- 
able   individual   and   the   one   who   may   be   considered   as 

1  Boston  Miscellany,  Oct.,  1842. 

2  4  vols.,  Boston,  1840. 


America  273 

personifying  and  representing,  more  perfectly  than  any 
other,  the  spirit  which  prevails  in  the  literature  of  the  day." 
Scott's  mind  is  wholly  poetical  and  his  inspiration  came 
originally  from  German  poetry  and  romance.  Then 
Everett  refers  to  the  work  of  the  American  forefathers 
in  securing  religious  freedom  and  popular  education  to  all 
men.  Formerly  England,  superior  in  wealth  and  popula- 
tion, had  been  the  literary  leader,  but  now  all  is  changing. 
America's  rapid  progress  will  soon  give  to  her  the  ascend- 
ency in  arts,  letters,  and  science,  as  in  policy.  The  New 
World  will  dictate  "  the  tone  to  the  literature  of  the  lan- 
guage." Let  it  be,  therefore,  the  care  of  American  scholars 
to  be  ready  for  this  high  calling,  and  to  vindicate  the  honor 
of  the  New  World  in  friendly  competition  with  the  Old. 

Moses  Stuart   (1780-1852) 

The  father  of  exegetical  science  in  America  was  a 
farmer's  son,  Moses  Stuart.  A  prodigy  in  mental  power, 
he  read  a  book  of  ballads  at  the  age  of  four.  When 
fourteen  years  old  he  mastered  Latin  grammar  in  less  than 
a  week,  in  order  that  he  might  enter  Norfolk  Academy. 
After  graduating  from  Yale  in  1799  he  taught  a  while, 
studying  law  at  the  same  time.  Though  admitted  to  the 
bar  (1802)  he  never  practiced.  His  legal  studies,  how- 
ever, had  much  influence  on  the  tenor  of  his  thought.  In- 
fluenced by  a  religious  revival  in  New  Haven,  he  deter- 
mined to  enter  the  ministry.  A  tutorship  at  Yale  for  two 
years  enabled  him  to  continue  his  studies  there.  In  1804 
he  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  two  years  later  he  accepted 
a  regular  pastorate  in  New  Haven,  where  he  remained  for 
four  years.  In  1810,  when  a  professor  of  sacred  literature 
was   needed   at   the  theological   academy  at   Andover,  the 


274        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

choice  fell  upon  Stuart,  not  because  he  was  a  Hebrew 
scholar,  but  because  of  his  intrinsic  and  sterling  traits  of 
character.  Stuart's  own  words  are  the  best  commentary 
on  the  state  of  American  scholarship  at  that  time :  "  I  came 
here,"  he  says,  "  with  little  more  than  a  knowledge  of  the 
Hebrew  alphabet  and  the  power  of  making  out,  after  a  poor 
fashion,  too,  the  bare  translation  of  some  five  or  six  chap- 
ters in  Genesis,  and  a  few  Psalms.  I  had  not,  and  never 
had  had,  the  aid  of  any  teacher  in  my  biblical  studies. 
Alas !  for  our  country  at  that  time ;  there  was  scarcely  a 
man  in  it,  unless  by  accident  someone  who  had  been  edu- 
cated abroad,  that  had  such  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew  as 
was  requisite  in  order  to  be  an  instructor." 

When  he  began  teaching  Hebrew  he  used  to  consult 
Schleussner's  Lexicon.  The  many  German  terms  troubled 
him  and  his  curiosity  was  aroused.  No  teacher  of  that  lan- 
guage was  available,  however.  At  an  exorbitant  price  he 
purchased  the  necessary  equipment  for  German  study,  and 
within  a  fortnight  was  reading  the  entire  Gospel  of  John  in 
German.  Then,  through  a  friend,  he  obtained  Seller's 
Biblische  Hermeneutik.  This  work  introduced  him  to  Ger- 
man literature.  From  the  references  and  suggestions  in  this 
one  volume  he  collected  for  the  seminary  the  best  library  of 
German  biblical  literature  in  America.  u  Before  I  obtained 
Seiler,"  he  said,  "  I  did  not  know  enough  to  believe  that  I 
yet  knew  nothing  in  sacred  criticism."  l  These  German 
studies  soon  brought  upon  him,  as  they  did  upon  other  con- 
temporary scholars,  the  enmity  and  suspicion  of  his  col- 
leagues. "  It  was  whispered,"  he  said,  "  that  I  was  not 
only  secretly  gone  over  to  the  Germans,  but  was  leading 
the  Seminary  over  with  me,  and  bringing  up,  or  at  least 
encouraging  our  young  men  to  the  study  of  deistical  '  Ra- 
1  Chris.  Exam.,  VI,  p.  449. 


America  275 

tionalism  ' ;  and  besides  this,  it  was  also  whispered  about, 
in  a  very  significant  way,  that  it  was  as  much  as  the  other 
professors  could  do  to  keep  the  Seminary  from  going  over 
to  Unitarianism."  At  this  time  the  idea  was  prevalent  that 
the  study  of  German  was  bad,  "  because  the  Unitarians  of 
Boston  and  Cambridge  favored  it." 

That  this  study  of  German  did  not  materially  alter  his 
Calvinistic  faith  and  religious  convictions  is  shown  by  his 
words :  "  I  was  indeed  but  slightly  affected  with  a  charge 
of  leaning,  in  this  affair  of  German  study,  toward  Uni- 
tarianism, for  heaven  knows,  that  the  Unitarians  of  that 
day  were,  as  a  mass,  as  guiltless  in  respect  to  the  sin  of 
German  study,  as  Jerome  was  in  respect  to  imitating 
Cicero's  Latinity,  when  the  angel  charged  him  with  such 
a  sin  and  administered  castigation  therefor.'' 

Stuart  then  goes  on  to  defend  the  study  of  German  as 
a  necessity  for  thorough  scholarship  by  writing  a  letter  on 
the  Study  of  the  German  Language  to  the  Editor  of  the 
Christian  Review.1  He  says  in  part :  "  The  greater  free- 
dom of  England  and  America  has  produced  more  bold  and 
open  attacks  upon  the  Scriptures,  and  upon  evangelical 
religion,  than  would  have  been  tolerated  in  Germany  until 
quite  recently.  Those  who  declaim  most  against  the  study 
of  the  German,  are  usually  the  persons  who  have  little  or 
no  acquaintance  with  it.  .  .  .  Is  this  partiality  for  German 
productions  purchased  favor,  courted  favor,  solicited  favor? 
Not  at  all.  The  Germans  have  hitherto  showed  very  little 
concern  about  their  reputation  in  foreign  countries.  They 
have  a  world  of  their  own.  What  then  brought  their  pro- 
ductions into  notice?  Nothing  but  the  value  of  them,  no 
other  earthly  reason  can  be  given.  In  fact,  it  has  come,  or 
is  coming,  to  this,  that  a  knowledge  of  the  German  is  no 
1  VI,  pp.  446-/1,  Sept.,  1841. 


276         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

longer  an  evidence  of  peculiar  and  distinguishing  acquisi- 
tion. What  Cicero  said  of  a  knowledge  of  Greek  in  his 
day,  we  may  now  say  of  the  German :  '  It  is  not  so  much 
a  matter  of  praise  to  be  acquainted  with  it,  as  of  shame 
to  be  ignorant  of  it.'  Nothing  short  of  the  most  prepos- 
terous vanity  can  lead  us,  at  present,  to  claim  equal  emi- 
nence in  literature  with  Germany.  Let  the  man  who  seeks 
instruction  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  German 
language  and  thus  possess  the  key  to  unlock  all  their  re- 
sources. If  he  does  not  find  himself  richly  repaid,  then  I 
am  content  to  be  put  down  for  an  ignoramus." 

Instead  of  defending  Unitarianism,  however,  Stuart  was 
the  zealous  champion  of  Trinitarianism.  When  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  attacked  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in  a  sermon  at 
Baltimore,  Stuart  replied  in  a  pamphlet  which  aroused  so 
much  attention  that  the  first  edition  was  exhausted  in  a 
week.  It  took  three  editions  to  supply  the  demand  in 
America  and  two  in  England.  Stuart  himself  acknowledged 
that  he  could  not  have  written  that  pamphlet,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  his  German  studies.  The  result  of  this  discus- 
sion was  that  his  friends  and  his  enemies  both  saw  their 
error  in  resisting  the  invasion  of  German  thought.  They 
even  began  to  welcome  its  advance.  German  study  now 
became  general.  "  To  Andover,"  then,  "  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  veteran  Stuart,  belongs  the  honor  of  having 
opened  the  rich  treasures  of  German  literature  and  theology 
to  the  American,  if  not  to  the  English  world."  1 

To  facilitate  the  study  of  exegetical  science,  Stuart,  with 
Edward  Robinson's  occasional  assistance,  began  a  series  of 
translations  from  noted  German  theologians.2     In  addition 

1  Evangel.  Rev.,  July,  1862,  p.  151. 

'Winer:  Greek  Grammar  of  the  Nezv  Testament,  1825  (with 
Robinson)  ;   Ernesti :  Elementary  Principles  of  Interpretation,  1842 


America  277 

he  wrote  many  original  works  on  biblical  criticism.  His 
commentary  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Hebrews  (1827-28), 
one  of  the  earliest  in  the  English  language,  was  said  by 
Dr.  J.  P.  Smith  to  be  "  the  most  important  contribution  to 
the  cause  of  sound  biblical  interpretation  that  had  ever  been 
made  in  the  English  language."  A  similar  opinion  was 
voiced  in  Germany.  Just  as  his  Hebrew  grammar  had  been 
republished  in  England  and  was  used  as  a  text-book  at 
Oxford,  so  his  Hebrew  Chrestomathy  (1829)  found  a  wel- 
come in  that  institution.1  So  great  was  his  reputation  as  a 
German  scholar  and  biblical  critic  that  the  London  Eclectic 
Review,  which  through  thirty  volumes  had  never  deviated 
from  its  practice  of  selecting  and  publishing  only  original 
matter,  printed  two  articles  entire  from  his  magazine,  the 
Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims  ( 1828). 

Stuart  thus  must  be  commended  for  his  wisdom  in  dis- 
covering that  the  German  literature  of  the  day  offered  him 
the  best  weapons  for  defending  his  faith  and  for  his  cor- 
responding moral  courage,  like  that  of  another  Luther,  to 
champion  the  cause  of  that  literature  and  of  the  language 
wherein  it  was  written. 

(with  notes  and  an  appendix  containing  extracts  from  Keil,  Beck, 
and  Morus).  Schleiermacher :  On  the  Discrepancies  between  the 
Sabellian  and  Athanasian  Methods  of  Representing  the  Doctrine  of 
a  Trinity  in  the  Godhead,  1835  (with  notes  and  illustrations). 
Jahn  and  others:  Dissertations  on  the  Importance  and  Best  Method 
of  Studying  the  Original  Languages  of  the  Bible  (with  notes). 
Ewald :  The  Hebrew  Tenses,  1838  (with  remarks).  Dorner :  Doc- 
trine Respecting  the  Person  of  Christ,  1850  (with  remarks). 
De  Wette :  Commentary  on  Romans,  1848.  Roediger:  Gesenius's 
Hebreiv  Grammar,  1846  (with  additions  and  a  Hebrew  chres- 
tomathy). 

1  Hebrew  Grammar,  by  Prof.  Lee,  at  Cambridge,  was  published 
six  years  later  than  Stuart's  in  1830. 


278        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

James  Marsh  (1794-1842) 

After  graduating  from  Dartmouth  College  in  181 7,  James 
Marsh  decided  to  enter  the  Theological  School  at  Andover 
in  preparation  for  the  ministry.  Here  he  came  into 
touch  with  Moses  Stuart.  Later,  while  serving  as  tutor 
at  Dartmouth,  he  found  time  to  continue  his  literary 
studies. 

In  the  autumn  of  1820  Marsh  returned  to  Andover  to 
complete  his  theological  studies.  In  his  Journal  he  records 
his  aim  to  pursue  the  critical  study  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  under  Professor  Stuart's  direction,  and  to 
study  modern  literature  an  hour  each  day.1  On  Feb. 
21,  1821,  he  writes:  "Of  my  progress  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, I  have  been  more  conscious  than  ever  before  and 
begin  to  feel  as  if  I  had  conquered  it.  On  Saturday,  in  the 
forenoon,  I  read  in  the  regular  course  of  my  studies  about 
fifty  pages,  and  read  it  well.  .  .  .  Read  forty  pages  of 
Heeren's  Idecn.  .  .  .  Read  thirty  pages  of  Hallam's  dis- 
sertation on  the  state  of  society  in  the  Middle  Ages.  He 
does  not  seem  to  be  acquainted  with  the  opinions  of  De 
Stael  and  Schlegel ;  or  if  he  is,  he  does  not,  in  my  opinion, 
give  them  the  right  influence  in  forming  his  notions  of  the 
human  mind  in  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire.  ...  In 
addition  to  what  I  have  already  mentioned  ...  I  read  ten 
or  twelve  pages  of  Muenscher."  2 

"  At  this  time,"  so  writes  his  biographer  Torrey,  "  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  studying  a  good  deal  the  work  of  Cole- 
ridge, particularly  the  Sketches  of  His  Literary  Life  and 
Opinions.  With  the  aid  of  Coleridge  and  Mme.  de  Stael, 
he  began,   moreover,  to  consult  Kant's  Critique   of  Pure 

1  Memoir,  pp.  36-37. 
"  Ibid  .  p.  40. 


America  279 

Reason,  then  a  perfect  terra  incognita  to  American 
scholars." 

While  at  Andover  he  wrote  an  article  on  Ancient  and 
Modern  Poetry,1  in  which  he  characterized  the  distin- 
guishing features  of  ancient  and  modern  genius  and  showed 
the  great  influence  of  Christianity  in  giving  a  more  spiritual 
direction  to  the  powers  of  mind.  With  a  friend  he  trans- 
lated from  the  German  Bellermann's  Geography  of  the 
Scriptures.  This  work  he  finished  in  December  1823.  As 
professor  at  Hampden-Sidney  College  in  Virginia  (1823- 
26)  Marsh  com'menced  the  translation  of  Herder's  Spirit 
of  Hebrew  Poetry,  the  first  parts  of  which  were  published 
in  several  successive  numbers  of  the  Christian  Repository. 

From  his  student  days  Marsh  had  found  much  delight 
in  the  study  of  philosophy.  Having  a  clear  knowledge  of 
all  its  important  questions  and  principles,  he  found  the 
chief  problem  was  in  fixing  definitely  the  true  and  only 
legitimate  method  of  scientific  inquiry.  It  was  he  who 
introduced  Coleridge  the  thinker  in  America,  by  publishing 
his  Aids  to  Reflection  with  an  introductory  essay.2  In 
1830  the  Selections  from  the  Old  English  Writers  on 
Practical  Theology  appeared.  His  aim  in  this  publication 
was  clearly  defined  in  a  letter  to  Coleridge  the  preceding 
March.  He  writes:  "  The  German  philosophers,  Kant  and 
his  followers,  are  very  little  known  in  this  country ;  and 
our  young  men  who  have  visited  Germany  have  paid  little 
,  attention  to  that  department  of  study  while  there.  I  cannot 
boast  of  being  wiser  than  others  in  this  respect ;  for  though 
I  have  read  a  part  of  the  works  of  Kant,  it  was  under  many 

1  N.  A.  R.,  July,  1822. 

'  This  essay  was  later  prefixed  by  Coleridge's  nephew  and  execu- 
tor, H.  N.  Coleridge,  to  the  London  edition  of  the  Aids  to  Reflection 
in  1839, 


280         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

disadvantages,  so  that  I  am  indebted  to  your  own  writings 
for  the  ability  to  understand  what  I  have  read  of  his  works, 
and  am  waiting  with  some  impatience  for  that  part  of  your 
works  which  will  aid  more  directly  in  the  study  of  those 
subjects  of  which  he  treats.  The  same  views  are  generally 
entertained  in  this  country  as  in  Great  Britain,  respecting 
German  literature ;  and  Stewart's  History  of  Philosophy 
especially  has  had  an  extensive  influence  in  deterring 
students  from  the  study  of  their  philosophy.  Whether  any 
change  in  this  respect  is  to  take  place  remains  to  be  seen. 
To  me  it  seems  a  point  of  great  importance,  to  awaken 
among  our  scholars  a  taste  for  more  manly  and  efficient 
mental  discipline,  and  to  recall  into  use  those  old  writers, 
whose  minds  were  formed  by  a  higher  standard."  x  After 
Dr.  Follen  had  read  the  work,  he  wrote,  April  14,  1832, 
to  Marsh :  "  Your  edition  of  Coleridge,  with  the  excellent 
prefatory  aids,  has  done  and  will  do  much  to  introduce  and 
naturalize  a  better  philosophy  in  this  country,  and  particu- 
larly to  make  men  perceive  that  there  is  much  in  the 
philosophy  of  other  nations,  and  that  there  is  still  more 
in  the  depths  of  their  own  minds  that  is  worth  exploring, 
and  which  cannot  be  had  cheap  and  handy  in  the  works  of 
the  Scotch  and  English  dealers  in  philosophy."  2 

Feeling  the  need  of  more  time  for  his  studies,  Marsh 
resigned  the  presidency  in  1833,  and  accepted  the  chair  of 
Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy.  He  now  finished  his 
translation  of  Herder's  Spirit  of  Hebrew  Poetry,  which  he 

1  Memoir,  p.  137. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  151.  Cf.  Rufus  Griswold,  Prose  Writers  of  America, 
p.  440:  "The  first  shock  to  the  orthodox  philosophical  creed  of 
New  England  [philosophy  of  Locke,  Stewart,  and  Reid]  was  Prof. 
Marsh's  calm,  profound,  and  luminous  exposition  of  the  doctrines 
of  Coleridge  in  his  preface  to  the  American  edition  of  The  Friend 
and  of  the  Aids  to  Reflection." 


America  281 

had  begun  at  Hampden-Sidney  College,  and  rendered  into 
English  Hegewisch's  work  on  the  elements  of  chronology. 
He  also  outlined  a  system  of  logic,  following  in  its  general 
divisions  and  arrangement  of  matter  the  German  work  of 
Fries  on  the  same  subject.  Unfortunately  he  left  nothing 
in  manuscript  on  this  plan  except  a  free  translation  of 
Fries's  work.  Another  book  contemplated  was  a  treatise 
on  psychology,  of  which  only  a  few  chapters  were  written. 
His  most  serious  thoughts  were  constantly  directed  toward 
the  study  of  man's  moral  and  religious  nature.  To  him 
the  science  of  sciences  was  the  knowledge  of  self  and  of 
man's  relations  to  the  higher  spiritual  world.  The  perfec- 
tion of  human  intelligence  was  the  Christian  faith.  As 
Griswold  writes,  Marsh  "  deserves  particular  and  honora- 
ble mention  in  every  survey  of  our  intellectual  advance- 
ment and  condition.  He  was  a  calm,  chaste  scholar,  an 
earnest  and  profound  thinker,  and  a  powerful  and  elo- 
quent advocate  of  the  highest  principles  of  religion  and 
philosophy,  whose  life  had  that  simplicity  and  grandeur 
which  are  constituted  by  a  combination  of  the  rarest  and 
noblest  of  human  virtues.  His  principal  published  writings 
are  devoted  to  those  elevating  and  spiritual  principles  of 
philosophy  of  which  Coleridge  and  Kant  were  the  most 
celebrated  European  asserters.  Though  nearly  agreeing 
with  these  great  men,  he  was  not  less  original  than  they, 
and  before  the  works  of  the  Englishman  or  the  Prussian 
were  known  on  this  continent,  by  the  independent  action 
of  his  own  mind,  he  had  formed  theories  similar  to  theirs 
and  taught  them  to  his  classes."  l 

1  Prose  Writers,  p.  18. 


282        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Charles  T.  Brooks  (1813-83) 

Charles  T.  Brooks  early  distinguished  himself  as  a  poet, 
but  it  was  as  a  translator  from  the  German  that  he  was 
most  widely  known.  His  first  interest  in  German  litera- 
ture was  undoubtedly  clue  to  W.  E.  Channing,  and  it  was 
later  increased  through  the  inspiring  influence  of  Karl 
Follen  and  Dr.  Beck.  His  first  attempts  at  translation 
were  from  Schiller,  the  Jungfrau  von  Orleans,  Maria 
Stnart,  and  Wilhelm  Tell  (1838). 

The  Christian  Examiner l  praises  Brooks's  unconscious 
imitation  of  the  "  characteristic  Naive  of  German  writing, 
in  which  no  words  representing  pure  thoughts  are  ever 
considered  homely.  And  it  is  just  here  that  an  infusion 
of  German  literature  may  very  much  benefit  our  own.  We 
have  come  to  look  upon  all  fresh  and  childlike  utterance 
as  ballad-like  and  antiquated.  It  is  refreshing  to  have 
modern  thoughts  come  to  us  so  clad.  If  this  treatment 
of  the  German  writers  can  be  fairly  presented  to  our 
young  authors,  and  win  them  to  truthfulness,  it  will  be 
doing  more  than  all  criticism."  In  1847,  with  the  trans- 
lation of  Schiller's  Homage  to  the  Arts,  closes  Brooks's 
study  of  the  poet's  greater  works. 

When  George  Ripley  was  arranging  for  his  edition  of 
Specimens  of  Foreign  Literature,  he  requested  Brooks  to 
prepare  a  translation  of  the  most  popular  songs  and  bal- 
lads from  Uhland,  Korner,  Burger,  and  other  lyrists.  This 
work,  with  copious  notes,  appeared  in  1842. 2  It  contained 
27  lyrics  from  Uhland,  18  from  Korner,  10  from  Schiller, 
6  each  from  Burger,  Goethe,  and  Holty,  5  from  Riickert, 
3  from  Klopstock,  and  2  from  A.  L.  Follen,  a  total  of  83 

1  XXV,  pp.  38S-91,  Jan.,  1839. 

2  Second  volume  of  the  Specimens. 


America  283 

poems  in  all.  Of  these  translations  60  were  by  Brooks  and 
the  remaining  23  by  his  friends.  Dwight  furnished  8; 
Frothingham,  7 ;  Mrs.  Sarah  Whitman,  4 ;  C.  P.  Cranch,  2 ; 
Longfellow,  1,  and  Karl  Follen,  1.  Some  years  later 
Brooks  issued  another  volume  of  poetic  translations  from 
many  German  authors,  some  of  whom  are  unimportant 
to-day.  Among  these  poets  are  Anastasius  Grun,  Riickert, 
Uhland,  Platen,  Freiligrath,  Chamisso,  Lenau,  Herwegh, 
Wiirkert,  Gellert,  Claudius,  Nicolai,  and  Kopisch.  This 
work  was  praised  by  a  London  critic  for  its  fidelity  and 
easy  grace.  He  said  that  Brooks  "  fully  maintained  by 
this  publication  the  credit  he  won  for  himself  by  his  former 
labors  as  a  translator  of  German  poetry."  x  As  a  specimen 
of  his  skill  I  quote  his  rendition  of  Herwegh's  Ich  mbchte 
hingchn  wie  das  Abendrot. 

"  Be  mine  to  vanish  like  the  gale's  last  breath, 
Like  the  red  gleam  of  evening's  fading  fire ! 
O  gentle,  peaceful,  all-unconscious  death ! 
In  the  Eternal's  bosom  thus  to  expire! 

Be  mine  to  vanish  like  the  brilliant  star, 
Beaming  with  brightness  unimpaired,  unclouded, 
So  placidly,  so  painlessly  afar 
In  Heaven's  blue  depths  of  endless  glory  shrouded. 

Be  mine  to  vanish  like  the  perfume  fair 
That  rises  lightly  from  the  cup  of  flowers, 
And  on  the  wing  of  incense-laden  air 
Curl  from  God's  altar  in  the  summer  hours. 

Be  mine  to  vanish  like  the  early  dew 

When  morning's  thirsty  eye  of  fire  is  blinking, 

Would  God  that  so  my  weary  spirit,  too, 

The  sunbeam  of  the  eternal  morn  were  drinking! 

1  London  Athenccum,  Xo.  1476,  pt.  i,  pp.  166-67,  Feb.  9,  1856. 


284         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Be  mine  to  vanish  like  the  plaintive  tone 

That  swells  from  harp-strings  touched  by  flying  fingers, 

And  from  the  earthly  metal  scarcely  flown, 

In  the  creator's  breast  harmonious  lingers! 


Thou  wilt  not  vanish  like  the  gale's  last  breath 
Nor  like  the  star,  in  placid  beauty  sinking, 
Thou  wilt  not  die  the  flower's  unconscious  death, 
No  morning  beam  shall  thy  last  breath  be  drinking. 

Yea,  thou  shalt  vanish,  vanish  without  trace, 

Yet  first  shall  failing  strength  give  many  a  token; 

In  Nature  only,  painless  death  finds  place, 

But  man's  poor  heart  must  be  by  pieces  broken !  " 


In  1845  had  appeared  the  Life  of  Jean  Paul  Richter, 
compiled  from  various  sources,  together  with  the  transla- 
tion of  his  autobiography,  by  Mrs.  Eliza  Buckminster  Lee.1 
Through  this  work  Brooks  became  deeply  interested  in  the 
German  humorist ;  he  therefore  determined  to  translate  his 
works  into  English.  For  this  task  he  was  peculiarly  fitted 
by  nature,  inasmuch  as  he  possessed  the  romantic  imagina- 
tion, the  tender  sentiment,  the  grotesque  humor,  and  moral 
enthusiasm  of  the  German.  In  the  preface  to  his  version 
of  the  Titan,2  Brooks  says :  "  The  translator  (or  trans- 
planter, for  he  aspires  to  the  title)  of  this  huge  production, 
in  his  solicitude  to  preserve  the  true  German  aroma  of  its 
native  earth,  may  have  brought  away  some  part  of  the  soil 
and  even  stones,  clinging  to  the  roots  (stones  of  offense 
they  may  prove  to  many,  stones  of  stumbling  to  many 
more).     He  can  only  say,  that  if  he  had  made  Jean  Paul 

1  2  vols.,  Boston,  new  ed.,  1852 ;  in  1  vol.,  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, 1850.  Mrs.  Thos.  Lee  also  translated  Richter's  Walt  und 
Vult,  from  the  Flegeljahre. 

-  2  vols.,  1862 ;  2nd  ed.  in  1863. 


America  285 

always  talk  in  ordinary,  conventional,  straightforward, 
instantly  intelligible  prose,  the  reader  would  not  have  had 
Jean  Paul  the  Only. 

"  And  yet  it  is  confidently  claimed  that,  under  all  the  ex- 
uberance of  metaphor  and  simile,  and  learned  technical 
illustrations  and  odd  digressions,  and  gorgeous  episodes, 
and  witching  interludes,  that  characterizes  Richter,  every 
attentive  and  thoughtful  reader  will  find  a  broad  and  solid 
ground  of  real  good  sense  and  good  feeling,  and  that  in 
this  extraordinary  man  whom,  at  times,  his  best  friends 
were  almost  tempted  to  call  a  crazy  giant,  will  be  found 
one  whose  heart  (to  use  the  homely  phrase)  is  ever  in  the 
right  place."  The  next  work  to  appear  in  translation  was 
Hesperus  (2  vols.,  1865),  with  many  explanatory  notes, 
to  which  Brooks's  friends  Hedge,  Furness,  and  Knorr  con- 
tributed suggestions.  In  the  introduction  Brooks  makes 
the  statement  that  "  he  seems  to  see  signs  that  Jean  Paul 
is  to  be  better  and  better  understood  and  appreciated 
among  us  in  this  free  and  forming  Western  world."  In 
conclusion  he  quotes  the  benediction  pronounced  by  Jean 
Paul  in  his  second  preface  on  the  "  evening  and  morning 
star  of  his  heart."  Other  translations  made  from  Richter 
were  Selina,  The  History  of  Fibel,  and  The  Invisible  Lodge 
( 1883),  the  proofs  of  which  he  finished  correcting  just  before 
his  death. 

Besides  these  versions  of  Jean  Paul,  Brooks  translated 
the  works  of  lesser  authors :  Leopold  Schefer's  Laien- 
brevier;  Carl  Kortum's  Jobsiade,  a  grotesco-comico-heroic 
poem;1  Riickert's  Weisheit  des  Brahmanen;2  Wilhelm 
Busch's  Max  nnd  Moritz   (1871),  and  Auerbach's  Aloys, 

1  Philadelphia,   1863. 

2  Only  one  volume  published ;  vols.  2  and  3  remain  in  manu- 
script. 


286         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

The  Convicts  and  their  Children,  Lorley  and  Reinhard, 
and  Poet  and  Merchant. 

Brooks's  crowning  achievement  in  translation  is  his  ver- 
sion of  the  first  part  of  Faust  (1856).  This  translation 
straightway  became  very  popular,  and  before  1880  had 
passed  through  fifteen  editions.  The  critic  of  the  Literary 
World  x  regarded  it  as  one  of  the  five  best  English  transla- 
tions,2 and  as  "  the  one  which  has  been,  and  probably  still 
is,  most  widely  read  in  this  country."  According  to  George 
Calvert,3  the  two  best  translations  of  Faust  are  by  the  Amer- 
icans, C.  T.  Brooks  and  Bayard  Taylor.  Dr.  Lina  Baumann 
in  her  dissertation  on  Die  englischen  Ubersetsungen  von 
Goethes  Faust 4  points  out  in  many  instances  Bayard  Tay- 
lor's debt  to  Brooks,  and  writes :  "  Brooks  is  the  one  who 
tried  to  imitate  the  changing  meter  and  at  the  same  time 
the  mixture  of  masculine  and  feminine  rimes.  Even  if  he 
has  not  always  succeeded,  yet  he  has  very  often  regarded 
the  artistic  effect  of  this  change  in  meter.  This  attempt  is 
sometimes  detrimental  to  the  poetic  value  of  his  work,  be- 
cause he  had  been  led  thereby  to  paddings,  which  are  not 
suitable  to  the  mood  concerned.  He  succeeded  best  in  his 
humorous  and  popular  scenes." 

A  very  characteristic  rendition  is  the  dedication  to  Faust 
in  ottava  rima,  of  which  I  quote  a  part : 

"  These  latter  songs  of  mine,  alas !  will  never 
Sound  in  their  ears  to  whom  they  first  were  sung! 
Scattered  like  dust  the  friendly  throng  forever! 
Mute  the  first  echo  that  so  grateful  rung. 

1  XII,  pp.  272-74. 

2  The  others  are  by  Bayard  Taylor,  Theodore  Martin,  Abraham 
Hayward,  and  John  Blackie. 

*  Brief  Essays  and  Brevities,  Boston,  1874,  Essay  18,  p.  126. 

*  Halle,  1907,'  pp.  15  and  98. 


America  287 

To  the  strange  crowd  I  sing,  whose  very  favor 
Like  chilling  sadness  on  my  heart  is  flung; 
And  all  that  kindled  at  those  earlier  numbers 
Roams  the  wide  earth  or  in  its  bosom  slumbers. 

And  now  I  feel  a  long-unwonted  yearning 

For  that  calm,  pensive  spirit-realm,  to-day; 

Like  an  /Eolian  lyre  (the  breeze  returning) 

Floats  in  uncertain  tones  my  lisping  lay. 

Strange  awe  comes  o'er  me,  tear  on  tear  falls  burning, 

The  rigid  heart  to  milder  mood  gives  way; 

What  I  possess  I  see  afar  off  lying, 

And  what  I  lost  is  real  and  undying." 

In  a  letter  to  Dwight,  Oct.  30,  1883,  E.  P.  Whipple 
recognizes  Brooks's  high  calling.  He  says :  "  I  can  hardly 
express  to  you  how  much  I  was  delighted  by  your  poem 
on  Brooks,  published  in  the  Transcript.  Every  trait  of  his 
charming  mind,  every  feature  of  his  gentle  and  beneficent 
face,  rise  before  me  as  I  read  your  tribute  to  his  moral  and 
intellectual  worth.  What  good  that  man  has  done,  consid- 
ered simply  as  a  translator  of  Goethe  and  Richter!  Yet  his 
patriotism  in  making  us  familiar  with  great  works  of  the 
German  mind  is  hardly  yet  appreciated — except  by  men  like 
you.  How  good  the  man  was.  Nobody  could  believe  in 
original  sin  in  his  presence.  He  radiated  his  own  stainless 
heart  and  soul  and  character  through  every  company  where 
he  appeared."  1 

George  H.  Calvert  (1803-88) 

The  first  Southerner  to  study  in  Germany  was  George  H. 
Calvert,  an  ardent  admirer  of  Carlyle.  In  an  essay  on  the 
Scotchman 2  he  says :  "  Well  do  I  remember  the  thirst 
wherewith,  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  I  seized  the  monthly 

1  Cooke:  John  S.  Dwight,  p.  288. 

*  Essays  JEsthctical,  Essay  6,  pp.  198-220. 


288         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Fraser,  to  drink  of  the  spiritual  waters  of  Sartor  Resartus. 
Here  was  a  new  spring;  with  what  stimulating,  exhilarat- 
ing, purifying  draughts  did  it  bubble  and  sparkle!  That 
picture  in  the  beginning  of  the  'doing  and  driving'  (Tun 
und  Treiben)  of  a  city  as  beheld  by  Professor  Teufels- 
drockh  from  his  attic — would  one  have  been  surprised  to 
read  that  on  a  page  of  Shakespeare?" 

While  at  Harvard  College,  this  descendant  of  Rubens  and 
of  Lord  Baltimore  was  so  aroused  by  the  new  zeal  for 
German  culture  that,  after  his  graduation  in  1823,  he  de- 
cided to  study  at  the  University  of  Gottingen.  In  his  work, 
First  Years  in  Europe,1  he  describes  his  life  at  Gottingen 
and  his  travels  in  Germany.  On  Jan.  21,  1824,  he  ar- 
rived in  Gottingen.  At  that  time  the  university  had  the 
best  library  in  Europe,  about  400,000  volumes. 

As  Calvert  was  not  well  versed  enough  in  German  to 
attend  the  university  lectures  with  profit,  he  took  private 
lessons  for  three  months.  He  also  studied  German  lit- 
erature privately  under  Benecke,  the  friend  of  Henry  Crabb 
Robinson.  After  reading  Nathan  der  Weise  and  Faust  with 
his  teacher,  he  was  introduced  to  the  beauties  of  the  Nibe- 
lungenlied.  Besides  acquiring  knowledge,  Calvert  was  im- 
pressed by  the  thorough  spirit,  wise  impartiality,  manly 
search  for  truth,  and  the  thoughtful  treatment  of  scientific 
subjects  by  the  German  scholars. 

Before  leaving  for  America  Calvert  traveled  through 
Europe  and,  of  course,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Weimar.  There 
he  was  cordially  received  by  Goethe,  who  had  just  read 
about  John  Quincy  Adams's  election  to  the  presidency  and 
was  eager  to  know  more  of  the  details.2 

1  Boston,    1866.      Chapters :    Gottingen    in    1824    and    Weimar   in 
1825,  first  published  in  Putnam's  Magazine,  1856. 

2  Chap,  viii,  pp.  165-71. 


America  289 

Just  before  leaving  Gottingen  Calvert  had  received  from 
a  Harvard  friend  a  copy  of  the  North  American  Review, 
containing  Bancroft's  article  on  The  Life  and  Genius  of 
Goethe.1  Thinking  it  would  please  the  poet,  he  sent  it  to 
him.  To  his  delight  he  received  an  invitation  to  visit  Goethe 
again  on  the  following  evening.  Unfortunately  Goethe  was 
ill,  so  Calvert  could  not  see  him,  but  Frau  Ottilie,  "  sprightly, 
intellectual,  and  graceful,  did  the  honors  with  tact  and  cor- 
diality." Of  Goethe,  Calvert  wrote:  "Goethe  was  one  of 
the  most  richly  endowed  of  the  sons  of  men,  many-sided 
and  broad-sided  and  bright-sided.  Having  the  supreme  gift 
of  imaginative  transfiguration,  he  gives  to  truth  winged 
bodies  of  beauty,  wherewith  to  hover  over  and  attract,  and 
delight  awhile,  instructing  the  more  capable  of  his  fellows ; 
he  having  first,  through  this  high  power  of  imagination, 
gained  insights  that  purged  his  nature  and  his  knowledge 
and  gave  a  symmetry  to  his  thought  while  it  stimulated  its 
vast  fertility.  Goethe's  thought  is  not  for  Germans  only 
but  for  men."  2 

On  his  return  to  Riverdale,  Maryland,  Calvert  became 
editor  of  the  Baltimore  American,  a  neutral  paper,  which 
served  for  the  propaganda  of  the  new  thoughts  and  ideas 
he  learned  in  Europe.3 

In  1834  Calvert's  first  contribution  to  the  German  cause 
appeared,  a  metrical  version  of  Schiller's  Don  Carlos.  For 
the  Jungfrau  von  Orleans  he  had  a  great  and  lasting  admira- 
tion. Among  his  original  compositions  are  a  historical 
tragedy,  The  Maid  of  Orleans  ( 1873),  and  a  narrative  poem 
in  four  books,  Joan  of  Arc  (1883).    In  1836  Calvert  deliv- 

1  XIX,  p.  303,  Oct..  1824. 

2  First  Years  in  Europe,  pp.  205-06. 

*  Cf.  Scenes  and  Thoughts  in  Europe,  a  scries  of  letters  from 
July,  1840,  to  Apr.,  1843,  PP-  40-54- 


290         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ered  his  celebrated  lecture  before  the  "  Athenaeum  Society  " 
of  Baltimore,  wherein  he  said  that  "  the  Germans,  endowed 
by  nature  with  mental  capabilities  inferior  to  those  of  no 
people  of  the  earth,  and  enjoying  for  the  last  half-century 
a  more  general  as  well  as  a  higher  degree  of  education  than 
any  other,  and  thus  combining  talent  and  genius  with  wide 
learning  and  laborious  labor,  possess  a  vast  and  various 
accumulation  of  productions,  wherein  are  to  be  found 
in  every  province  of  letters  works  of  highest  excellence, 
which,  to  the  literary  or  scientific  student,  whatever  be  his 
native  tongue,  are  inexhaustible  sources  of  mental  enjoy- 
ment and  improvement." 

In  1843  Calvert  moved  to  Newport,  R.  I.,  where  he  re- 
sided until  his  death.  Here  he  came  into  closer  relations 
with  Brooks  and  Channing,  and  through  them  with  the 
Boston  transcendentalists.  From  now  on  his  pen  is  very 
prolific,  especially  in  works  on  German  literature.  When 
George  Ripley  was  selecting  his  collaborators  for  his  For- 
eign Specimens,  he  sought  Calvert's  assistance.  Calvert 
chose  for  translation  The  Correspondence  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller.  He  translated,  however,  only  about  half  of  the 
letters,  through  the  year  1797.  The  first  volume  of  this 
version  did  not  appear  until  1845,  after  the  discontinuance 
of  the  series.  To  this  fact  Calvert  alludes  in  his  preface, 
and  then  adds :  "  Goethe  is  the  most  complete  man  of  his 
time.  He  is  the  richest  specimen  of  humanity  since  Shake- 
speare. In  him  the  manifold  capacities  of  our  nature  were 
centered  in  uncommon  individual  strength  and  rare  aptness 
to  refinement.  With  the  spontaneous  development  inherent 
in  such  fertility  was  early  associated  a  monarchial  power 
of  will  over  this  affluence  of  resources.  From  youth  to  old 
age  his  daily  endeavor  was  to  cultivate  and  purify  his 
being." 


America  291 

Then  referring  to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1844,  in  which  the  orator  had  said  that  Goethe 
"  was  a  great,  an  unequaled  Artist,  ...  a  term  of  dis- 
paragement used  to  indicate  a  writer  whose  inspiration 
passes  not  through  the  heart,  and  whose  lofty  sentiments 
have  no  home  in  his  soul,  and  no  expression  in  his  life," 
Calvert  says  that  art  is  a  marriage  of  soul  and  intellect. 
It  ascends  from  the  finite  to  the  infinite.  It  does  not  copy 
nature  but  co-operates,  interprets,  and  reveals  the  spiritual 
source  of  the  corporeal  by  the  perfection  of  its  incarna- 
tions. 

In  Newport  Calvert  served  on  the  Board  of  Education 
for  several  years ;  being  for  a  time  its  chairman.  Filled 
with  the  new  ideals  of  education  which  he  had  imbibed  in 
Germany,  he  devoted  much  attention  to  his  duties.  From 
his  influence  the  public  school  system  of  Newport  derived 
much  profit  and  benefit.  In  recognition  of  his  services  to 
that  cause,  a  new  schoolhouse,  built  by  the  city  and  dedi- 
cated Dec.  3,  1890,  was  called  the  Calvert  School.  In 
his  inaugural  address  as  mayor,  Calvert  had  said :  "  Of 
the  public  school  system  I  cannot  speak  in  too  high  praise. 
Its  schools  are  the  very  citadel  of  a  Republic.  The  better 
instructed  are  the  youth,  the  firmer  are  the  republic's 
foundations.  Education  cannot  be  overdone.  That  com- 
munity is  the  highest  in  which  the  scientific,  moral,  literary, 
and  practical  education  is  the  best."  1 

Calvert's  masterpiece  is  undoubtedly  his  Goethe  (1872),2 
in  which  he  gives  an  elaborate  and  artistic  appreciation  of 
the  poet.  Interspersed  are  many  original  translations  from 
Goethe's  poems,  his  correspondence  with  Schiller,  Zelter, 
and    Frau   von    Stein,   his  conversations   with   Muller   and 

1  Calvert  Biblioy.,  pp.  3-4- 

2  2nd  ed.,  1886. 


292         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Eckermann,  and  selections  from  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit. 
This  work  discusses  the  following  subjects:  Weimar  and 
Italy,  Friendships,  Loves,  Faust,  Conclusion.  Calvert  con- 
tends that  Goethe's  aim  was  ever  growth  and  improvement. 
From  every  experience  he  drew  nutriment,  but  all  were 
subservient  to  culture.  In  his  manifold  duties  he  neglected 
nothing ;  each  was  undertaken  with  a  whole-hearted  zeal. 
As  Herder  said,  he  was  ever  a  child ;  though  a  man  of  the 
world,  he  was  never  blase.  He  "  lived  by  principles  and 
for  principles."  Hating  superficiality  and  indifference,  he 
sought  the  law  and  essence  of  things.  '  Wisdom,"  says 
Calvert,  "  may  be  described  as  the  transfusion  of  spiritual 
principles  into  daily  practice.  A  knowing  man  is  one  who 
cleverly  accommodates  his  doings  to  the  demands  of  ex- 
pediency ;  a  wise  man  is  one  who  makes  his  bearing  towards 
his  fellow-men  adjust  itself  to  the  sweep  of  the  broadest 
eternal  principles.  In  discerning  and  baffling  the  designs 
and  petty  aims  of  expediency  in  others,  Goethe  was  a  know- 
ing man ;  in  his  own  ends  and  means  he  was  a  wise  man."  * 

"Faust,''  so  Calvert  writes,  is  "  the  poetical  reverberation 
of  Goethe's  individual  life,  an  artistic  transfiguration 
through  a  many-toned  song — by  one  who  had  a  genius  for 
such  singing — of  the  passions,  thoughts,  strivings,  doubts, 
conflicts,  acquisitions,  upreachings  of  a  great  poet  and  a 
great  man,  a  deep-thoughted,  warm-souled,  well-poised 
man,  whose  profuse  gifts  were  crowned  with  a  rare  literary 
gift  of  fullest,  finest,  most  perspicuous  expression."  2 

The  second  part  of  Faust  Calvert  considered  a  commen- 
tary on  civilized  life  in  all  its  varied  forms.  If  the  first 
part  was  a  bright-hued  rainbow,  the  second  part  was  its 
reflex.      Feeling  gave   place   to   intellect.     The    result   was 

1  P.  56. 

2  P.  196. 


America  293 

therefore  abstract  symbolism.  In  the  first  part  the  scenes 
and  characters  were  passionately  real ;  in  the  second  part 
they  were  only  intellectually  real. 

Among  the  poetical  translations  Calvert  included  in  this 
work,1  I  quote  the  following: 

"  Every  day  and  every  night 
Thus  I  gauge  of  man  the  fate. 
Does  he  ever  aim  at  right, 
He  is  ever  fair  and  great." 

While  writing  his  Goethe,  Calvert  had  become  interested 
in  the  character  of  Frau  von  Stein,  who  gave  Goethe  the 
feminine  sympathy  he  needed  and  aroused  the  noblest  and 
purest  traits  of  his  nature  to  poetic  activity.  Other  causes, 
too,  contributed  to  intensify  this  initial  interest.  In  1848-56 
Goethe's  letters  to  Frau  von  Stein  had  been  published ;  then 
in  1874  appeared  Diintzer's  work  on  the  subject.  Calvert 
decided  to  write  a  memoir  on  Charlotte  von  Stein.2  This 
life  was  full  of  laudatory  references  to  Goethe ;  for  Calvert 
wrote :  "  Goethe  was  a  great  man,  a  man  of  truth  and  heart, 
a  good  man,  one  of  the  most  moral,  most  religious  men  that 
ever  lived.  In  his  life  there  was  a  daily  beauty,  created 
and  kept  ever  fresh  by  his  uprightness  and  his  active,  inex- 
haustible kindness."  3 

Some    years    afterward    Calvert    wrote    his    Coleridge; 

1  Klarchcn's  Song :  The  Faitjiless  Boy;  Der  du  von  dem  Himmel 
bist;  Stanza  from  Ilmenan;  Charade;  Gefwnden;  Parable  (Love 
of  Truth)  ;  Selections  from  prologue  of  Faust;  Archangel's  Song; 
parts  of  the  Prolog  in  Heaven,  scene  between  Faust  and  the 
Erdgeist,  between  Faust  and  Wagner,  the  Easter  song,  For  dem 
Thor;  and  between  Mephistophelcs  and  the  Student;  Meine  Ruh 
ist  hin ;  ll'er  darf  ihn  nennen;  end  of  part  one,  Scene  between  the 
Chancellor  and  Mcphistopheles ;  The  God  and  the  Bajadere. 

2  1877 ;  2nd  ed.  in  1886. 

3  P.  193- 


294         Madame  de  Stake's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Shelley;  Goethe  (1880).  The  essay  on  Goethe  contained 
the  translation  of  three  distiches  and  two  quatrains.  As  a 
final  proof  of  his  admiration  he  wrote  this  sonnet  to 
Goethe : 

"  Teutonic  leader, — in  the  foremost  file 
Of  that  picked  corps,  whose  rapture  'tis  to  feel 
With  subtler  closer  sense  all  woe  and  weal, 
And  forge  the  feeling  into  rhythmic  pile 
Of  words,  so  tuned  they  sing  the  sigh  and  smile 
Of  all  humanity, — meek  didst  thou  kneel 
At  Nature's  pious  altars,  midst  the  peal 
Of  prophet-organs,  thy  great  self  the  while 
All  ear  and  eye,  thou  greatest  of  the  band, 
Whose  voices  waked  their  brooding  Luther-land, — 
At  last  left  lone  in  Weimar,  famed  through  thee, 
Wearing  with  stately  grace  thy  triple  crown 
Of  science,  statesmanship,  and  poesy, 
Enrobed  in  age  and  love  and  rare  renown."  1 

Besides  these  studies  on  German  literature,  Calvert  wrote 
many  other  biographical  works  which  show  his  versatility 
as  a  critic  of  art,  literature,  philosophy,  and  social  science. 
His  original  dramas  and  poems,  of  which  he  wrote  many, 
have  not  the  same  value  as  his  aesthetic  studies.  His  genius 
was  reproductive;  not  creative.  He  was,  in  the  language 
of  the  Literary  World,  "a  scholar  of  refined  tastes  and 
sensibilities,  educated  in  the  school  of  Goethe,  who  looks 
upon  the  world  at  home  and  abroad  in  the  light  not  merely 
of  genial  and  ingenious  reflection,  but  with  an  eye  of  philo- 
sophical practical  improvement." 

Frederick  Henry  Hedge  (1805-go) 

'  It  was,"  says  Chadwick,  "  in  Frederick  H.  Hedge  that 
the  first-hand  knowledge  of  German  thought  reached  its 

1  Pp.  286-87. 


America  295 

high  tide  in  the  Transcendental  Period."  *  In  1818  when 
George  Bancroft  went  to  Germany,  he  had  under  his  care 
Frederick  Hedge,  the  son  of  Professor  Levi  Hedge  of  Har- 
vard. He  was  to  study  at  the  Gymnasium  of  Schulpforta 
under  the  celebrated  teacher,  David  Ilgen.  Five  years  later 
Hedge  returned  to  study  theology  at  Cambridge  and  in  1829 
was  ordained. 

If  Hedge  had  been  a  more  aggressive  spirit  he  would 
undoubtedly  have  played  a  more  prominent  part  in  the 
transcendental  movement.  As  it  was,  because  of  a  sound 
scholarship  and  accurate  knowledge  of  German,  he  was  one 
of  its  earliest  and  most  influential  disciples.  His  article  on 
Coleridge  and  German  philosophy  in  the  Christian  Ex- 
aminer 2  was  really  a  forerunner  of  the  new  thought. 

Hedge  wrote  innumerable  articles  for  the  Examiner. 
Among  them  was  a  review  of  Brooks's  translation  of  Faust? 
In  it  he  declares  that  the  drama  is  "  the  consummate  flower 
of  a  Gothic  mind,  as  Sakontala  is  of  the  Aryan, — a  work 
which  the  final  judgment  of  mankind  will  rank  with  the 
supreme  products  of  genius,  with  the  Divina  Commedia, 
with  Hamlet  and  Macbeth,  and  the  old  masterpieces  of  the 
Greek  stage."  The  poem  is  also  a  "  philosophem,"  for  it 
is  a  symbolical  representation  of  the  problem  and  solution 
of  human  life.  Faust  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  modern 
world  as  the  Prometheus  Bound  of  ^Eschylus  did  to  the 
ancient.  Each  is  not  a  single  tragedy,  but,  in  A.  W. 
Schlegel's  words,  "  tragedy  itself."  In  each  there  is  the 
conflict  with  human  destiny ;  Prometheus  resists  the  arbi- 
trary rule  of  Zeus.  Faust  will  transcend  the  bounds  of  the 
impossible ;  he  wars  against  morality ;  he  scales  its  heights, 

1  Life  of  Ph.  Parker,  p.  82. 

:  March,  1833. 

3  LXIII,  pp.  1-18,  July,  1857. 


296        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

but  driven  back,  is  chained  to  the  rock  of  Necessity,  and 
there  devours  his  own  heart  in  unsatisfied  longing.  Mephis- 
topheles  is  merely  a  personification  of  Faust's  baser  nature. 
Whereas  Prometheus  is  unbound  by  Hercules,  Faust  is 
saved  by  his  own  merit,  aided  by  divine  grace  and  love. 
Gretchen,  the  symbol  of  Faust's  better  soul,  of  his  upward 
tendency,  is  his  guide.  '  It  is  only  when  the  ascending  love 
of  the  finite  subject  is  met  and  accepted  and  consummated 
by  the  condescending  love  of  the  infinite,  that  the  indi- 
vidual can  be  saved."  Its  moral  is  stated  in  the  Chorus 
Mysticus : 

"  Body  that  perishes 
Shows  the  ideal ; 
All  that  faith  cherishes 
Here  becomes  real. 
Here  superhumanly 
Is  the  prize  won ; 
The  ever-womanly 
Draweth  us  on."  J 

'  In  Goethe's  Faust  we  possess,  in  a  higher  sense  than 
Italy  in  her  Dante,  a  Divina  Commedia,  which,  amid  all  the 
diversity  of  human  endeavors  and  emotions,  directs  the 
presentient  mind  to  the  higher  home,  where  that  which  was 
here  unattainable  shall  fulfill  itself." 

In  1848  appeared  Hedge's  Prose  Writers  of  Germany, 
of  which  Andrew  P.  Peabody  wrote : 2  "  There  is  no  book 
accessible  to  the  English  or  American  reader  which  can 
furnish  so  comprehensive  and  symmetrical  a  view  of  Ger- 
man literature  to  the  uninitiated ;  and  those  already  con- 
versant with  some  of  the  German  classics  will  find  here 
valuable  and  edifying  extracts  from  works  to  which  very 

1  Brooks's  translation. 

•  N.  A.  R.,  LXVII,  pp.  464-85,  Oct.,  1848. 


America  297 

few  of  this  country  can  gain  access."  In  this  work  were 
treated  twenty-eight  authors,  from  Luther  through  Cha- 
misso.  To  the  sketch  of  each  author's  life  was  prefixed 
a  portrait.  Then  followed  selected  translations  from  his 
works.  In  the  introduction  Hedge  frankly  stated  his 
obligations  in  this  respect  to  his  friends.  From  Carlyle 
came  The  Tale  and  the  selections  from  Wilhelm  Meister; 
J.  Elliot  Cabot  furnished  those  from  Kant  and  Schelling ; 
J.  Weiss  translated  the  ones  from  Schiller ;  to  C.  J.  Brooks 
Hedge  was  indebted  for  the  portions  from  Richter's  Titan; 
George  Bradford  rendered  into  English  the  passages  from 
Die  W  ahlverwandtschaften,  and  from  George  Ripley 
Hedge  received  the  translation  from  Schleiermacher. 
Hedge  made  likewise  copious  use  of  Mrs.  Austin's 
Characteristics  of  Goethe  and  of  Margaret  Fuller's  articles 
in  the  Dial.  It  is  in  this  book  that  Hedge  quotes  Fichte's 
opinion  of  Goethe  as  a  true  character.  '  In  him  the  noblest 
blossom  in  humanity  which  nature  had  put  forth  but  once 
beneath  the  Grecian  sky,  by  one  of  her  miracles  was  re- 
peated here  in  the  North.  To  him  it  was  given  to  measure 
two  different  epochs  of  human  culture,  with  all  their  grada- 
tions. And  if  our  race  is  destined  to  ascend  to  higher 
degrees  of  excellence,  it  will  not  be  without  his  co-opera- 
tion." 

With  Rev.  Fr.  D.  Huntington  Hedge  edited  a  volume 
of  Hymns  for  the  Church  of  Christ  (1853),  many  poems  of 
which  were  his  own.  As  an  illustration  of  his  poetical  abil- 
ity, I  quote  two  stanzas  of  a  poem  printed  in  the  Dial.  It 
is  called  Questionings,  or  The  Idealists,  and  reflects  Kant 
and  Schelling.  According  to  a  note,  it  was  suggested  while 
Hedge  was  watching  the  stars  during  a  night  journey  on 
a  Bangor  mail  coach,  and  was  written  down  after  reaching 
home. 


298         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

'  Thought !  that  in  me  works  and  lives, — 
Life  to  all  things  living  gives, — 
Art  thou  not  thyself,  perchance, 
But  the  universe  in  trance? 
A  reflection  inly  flung 
By  that  world  thou  fanciedst  sprung 
From  thyself — thyself  a  dream — 
Of  the  world's  thinking  thou  the  theme. 

"  Be  it  thus,  or  be  thy  birth 
From  a  source  above  the  earth — 
Be  thou  matter,  be  thou  mind, 
In  thee  alone  myself  I  find, 
And   through   thee   alone,    for   me 
Hath  this  world  reality. 
Therefore,  in  thee  will  I  live, 
To  thee  all  myself  will  give, 
Losing  still,  that   I   may  find 
This  bounded  self  in  boundless  Mind."  * 

In  1857  Hedge  became  professor  of  ecclesiastical  history 
in  the  Divinity  School  at  Cambridge.  About  the  same  time, 
with  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale,  he  assumed  charge  of  the  Examiner, 
the  official  organ  of  the  American  Unitarian  Society  (1858- 
60).  Two  years  later  he  was  elected  president  of  that 
association.  During  the  same  year  he  was  invited  by  the 
Germans  of  Boston  to  deliver  an  oration  for  the  Schiller 
anniversary.  In  1866  he  addressed  the  Alumni  of  Harvard 
College,  proposing  several  changes  in  the  system  of  study 
then  in  vogue,  some  of  which  were  later  adopted.  Four 
years  afterward  there  appeared  in  print  his  Primeval  World 
of  Hebrew  Tradition,  which  was  soon  translated  into  Ger- 
man (1873).  In  1872  he  accepted  the  professorship  of 
German  at  Harvard.  During  his  six  years'  service  in  that 
capacity  he  wrote  a  helpful  little  work  on  German  Preposi- 
tions (1875).     Besides,  he  was  constantly  finding  time  to 

'Cooke:  Poets  of  Transcendentalism,  pp.  114-16. 


America  299 

write  essays  and  books  on  literature,  politics,  philosophy, 
and  religion.1 

In  order  to  devote  himself  to  the  composition  of  another 
great  work  on  German  literature,  Hedge  resigned  his  pro- 
fessorship in  1878.  This  work,  Hours  with  German 
Classics  (1886),  follows  the  same  general  plan  as  the  Prose 
Writers.  It  was  not  a  book  designed  for  the  specialist,  but 
for  the  learner.  It  shows,  therefore,  Hedge's  power  as  a 
philosophical  critic  rather  than  a  philologist.  In  this  lit- 
erary history  Hedge  discusses  German  literature  from  its 
beginnings  through  Heine  and  Hoffmann.  As  in  the  earlier 
works  Goethe  is  treated  con  amove,  90  pages,  or  over  one- 
sixth  of  the  work,  being  devoted  to  him.  Schiller  is  al- 
lowed 50  pages,  and  the  remaining  397  pages  suffice  for  all 
the  others. 

Hedge's  next  work  on  German  thought  was  a  collection 
of  literary  essays  entitled  Martin  Luther  and  Other  Essays 
(1888).  The  following  year  there  appeared  his  translation 
of  Chamisso's  Peter  ScJilemihl.  Throughout  his  whole 
career  Hedge's  talents  were  employed  in  interpreting 
German  thought  for  the  American  mind. 


George  Ripley  (1802-80) 

While  at  Harvard,  Ripley  came  into  contact  with  some 
of  the  "  Gottingen  students,"  notably  with  Edward  Everett. 
He  wrote  his  mother  April  20,  1820,  of  a  change  in  student 
life  introduced  by  that  professor,  by  which  a  student  boarded 
in  his  room  instead  of  at  the  commons.  He  says :  "  This 
custom  is  recently  introduced  by  Professor  Everett,  who 

1  Conservatism  and  Reform,  1843;  The  Leaven  of  the  Word, 
1849;  Reason  in  Religion,  1865;  The  Sick  Woman,  1863;  Ways  of 
the  Spirit  and  Other  Essays,  1877. 


300        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

sets  the  example  in  imitation  of  the  German  universities, 
whose  manners  and  custom  they  endeavor  to  adopt  as  much 
as  possible."  1  Then,  too,  Hedge's  article  on  Coleridge,  in 
which  Kant,  Fichte,  and  Schelling  were  praised,  was  "  of 
potent  influence  in  determining  the  bent  of  his  mind."  2 

As  student  and  as  Unitarian  pastor  Ripley  had  accumu- 
lated a  very  fine  library  of  books,  especially  of  French  and 
German  works.  Some  had  been  imported,  but  many  of 
them  he  had  purchased  from  a  former  divinity  student  who 
had  studied  abroad,  and  who  had  died  after  his  return  to 
America.  While  he  "  studied  his  books  faithfully  and  made 
them  enrich  his  mind,"  3  he  was  very  generous  in  loaning 
them  to  friends. 

Ripley  was  one  of  the  foremost  disciples  of  tran- 
scendentalism, and  it  was  at  his  home  on  Sept.  19, 
1836,  that  the  first  meeting  of  the  new  "Transcendental 
Club  "  was  held.  The  charter  members  were  Ripley,  Emer- 
son, Hedge,  Clarke,  Convers  Francis,  and  A.  B.  Alcott.  The 
next  year  its  membership  was  increased  by  many  other 
friends,  among  whom  were  Parker,  Dwight,  Margaret 
Fuller,  and  Elizabeth  Peabody.  From  this  time  dates  the 
famous  friendship  of  Ripley  and  Parker. 

During  these  years  Ripley's  theological  views  were  grad- 
ually changing  from  the  narrow  Unitarian  faith  of  his 
fathers  to  a  broad  and  tolerant  religious  spirit.  When  in 
an  article,  The  Latest  Form  of  Infidelity  (1839),  Andrews 
Norton  brought  charges  of  atheism  against  De  Wette, 
Spinoza,  Schleiermacher,  and  this  new  intuitional  philos- 
ophy, it  was  Ripley  (later  Parker  and  Emerson)  who  first 
vindicated  its  truth  in  a  spirited  rejoinder,  The  Latest  Form, 

1  Frothingham :  Life  of  G.  Ripley,  p.  9. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  97. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  47. 


America  301 

of  Infidelity  Examined ;  a  letter  to  Andrews  Norton  (1839). 
The  next  year  Ripley  resigned  his  pastorate.  In  his  letter 
of  resignation  he  stated  his  abhorrence  of  war  and  slavery 
and  also  his  belief  in  transcendentalism. 

While  pastor,  Ripley  had  been  engaged  in  active  journal- 
istic and  educational  work.  For  a  short  time  he  edited  the 
Christian  Register.  From  1830  to  1837  he  wrote  ten  articles 
for  the  Christian  Examiner  on  such  subjects  as  Pcstalozsi 
and  Neuhof,  Life  of  Herder,  Follen's  Inaugural  Address, 
Schleiermacher  as  a  Theologian,  Herder's  Theological 
Opinions  and  Services,  and  Martineau's  Rational  Religions 
Inquiry.  The  last  article  caused  a  stir  in  conservative  Uni- 
tarian circles,  and  elicited  a  sharp  reply  from  Andrews  Nor- 
ton in  the  Boston  Advertiser.  In  his  article  on  Herder, 
Ripley  protested  against  the  indiscriminating  charge  of 
mysticism,  obscurity,  and  irreligion  brought  against  German 
philosophy.  He  declared  also  that  through  such  thinkers 
as  Herder,  Tholuck,  Baumgarten,  Semler,  Ernesti,  and 
Michaelis  had  come  the  new  reformation  in  Germany. 

Ripley  was  editor  of  a  series  of  translations  from  the 
French  and  German,  Specimens  of  Foreign  Literature. 
This  work  in  fourteen  volumes  x  was  the  result  of  the  co- 
laboration  of  noteworthy  scholars :  Ripley,  Dwight,  Mar- 
garet Fuller,  Wm.  H.  Channing,  C.  C.  Felton,  Clarke,  Sam'l 
Osgood,  and  Brooks.  The  first  two  volumes,  Philosophical 
Miscellanies,  translated  from  the  French  of  Cousin,  Jouf- 
froy,  and  Benjamin  Constant,  with  notices,  appeared  in 
1832  and  was  the  work  of  Ripley.  "  These  volumes,"  says 
Frothingham,  "  had  a  marked  influence  on  the  educational 
men  of  that  day,  especially  in  New  England."  2  In  a  long 
introduction  Ripley  states  a   list  of  subjects  and  authors 

1  1832-42,  new  e<±,  Edinburgh,  1853. 
'  P.  98. 


302         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

under  consideration  for  this  work.  Then,  quoting  an  emi- 
nent authority,  he  says :  "  We  earnestly  recommend  to  our 
educational  men  a  more  extensive  acquaintance  with  the 
intellectual  labors  of  continental  Europe.  Our  reading  is 
confined  too  much  to  English  books,  and  especially  to  the 
more  recent  publications  of  Great  Britain.  In  this  we  err. 
We  ought  to  know  the  different  modes  of  view  and  discuss 
great  subjects  in  different  nations." 

With  Margaret  Fuller  and  Emerson,  Ripley  founded  the 
Dial  in  July  1840.  He  assisted  in  the  editorship  until  his 
removal  to  Brook  Farm  the  following  April.  He  contrib- 
uted two  articles :  A  Review  of  the  Writings  of  Orestes  A. 
Brownson  and  A  Letter  to  a  Theological  Student,  recom- 
mending the  study  of  Herders  Letters  on  the  Study  of 
Theology.  Concerning  their  influence  he  wrote:  "In  Eu- 
rope (i.e.,  Germany)  a  new  life  has  sprung  up  from  the 
ashes  of  a  departed  faith;  a  hag-like,  scholastic  theology 
has  given  up  the  ghost,  upon  being  brought  out  of  darkness 
into  daylight ;  and  a  virgin  form  appears,  radiant  with 
beauty,  and  already  uttering  the  same  words  with  which 
angel  voices  heralded  the  birth  of  Christ.  It  is  for  our 
young  men  to  welcome  this  glorious  visitant  to  their 
bosoms."  * 

As  his  article  on  Pestalossi  and  Neuhof  in  the  Examiner 
indicates,  Ripley  was  much  interested  in  the  communistic 
and  educational  experiments  then  prevalent  in  Europe.  In 
the  early  part  of  1841,  with  a  few  friends  of  like  views  and 
ideals,  he  purchased  two  hundred  acres  of  land  in  West 
Roxbury,  nine  miles  from  Boston,  in  order  to  try  the  experi- 
ment of  a  social  and  industrial  life  guided  by  rational  aims, 
a  life  in  which  all  members  should  have  a  particular  duty 
and  yet  have  "  leisure  to  live  in  all  the  faculties  of  the 

1  Life,  p.  106. 


America  303 

soul."  *  On  September  29  the  Articles  of  the  Association 
were  drawn  up  and  officers  elected.  Two  days  later  the 
'  Brook  Farm  Institute  of  Agriculture  and  Education  "  was 
organized  with  Ripley  as  leader  and  chairman,  Chas.  A. 
Dana  as  secretary,  and  Mrs.  Sophia  Ripley  as  head  of  the 
educational  department. 

The  aims  of  this  association  were  well  stated  by  its  leader. 
"  Our  objects,"  he  wrote,  "  are  to  insure  a  more  natural 
union  between  intellect  and  manual  labor  than  now  exists; 
to  combine  the  thinker  and  the  worker,  as  far  as  possible, 
in  the  same  individual ;  to  guarantee  the  highest  mental  free- 
dom by  providing  all  with  labor  adapted  to  their  tastes  and 
talents,  and  securing  to  them  the  fruits  of  their  industry ; 
to  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  menial  services  by  opening 
the  benefits  of  education  and  the  profits  of  labor  to  all;  and 
thus  to  prepare  a  society  of  liberal,  intelligent,  and  cultivated 
persons,  whose  relations  with  each  other  would  permit  a 
more  simple  and  wholesome  life  than  can  be  led  amid  the 
pressure  of  our  competitive  institutions."  The  high  ambitious 
designs  and  subsequent  vicissitudes  of  this  undertaking  are 
too  well  known  to  need  enlargement.  Suffice  it  that  it  regis- 
ters another  manifestation  of  the  now  potent  German 
cultural  influence  in  America. 

John  Sullivan  Dwight  (1813-93) 

John  Sullivan  Dwight  was  one  of  our  earliest  critics  of 
music  and  most  ardent  apostles  of  German  literature.  His 
interest  in  these  subjects  was  aroused  by  Carlyle  and  by  the 

1  See  Frothingham's  Life  of  Ripley;  Cooke's  Life  of  Dwight, 
chap,  iv ;  Emerson's  Works,  X,  pp.  338-47;  Atlantic  Monthly,  Sept., 
1870,  and  Nov.,  1878;  Dial,  Jan.,  1842;  New  Eng.  Mag.,  May.  1894; 
Lindsay  Smith:  Brook  Farm,  for  descriptions  of  the  life  at  Brook 
Farm. 


304         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

group  of  American  writers  just  discussed.  In  1838  Dwight 
published  in  translation  Select  Minor  Poems  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller.  Through  this  work  he  aimed  to  bring  the  German 
poets  "  near  us  in  some  living  way,"  so  that  "  it  would 
give  a  new  impulse  to  our  literature  and  inspire  worthier 
aims  and  methods  of  culture  than  now  prevail."  "  Literary- 
brotherhood  with  the  Germans  alone  seems  to  have  been 
something  more  than  a  name,"  he  writes.  "  It  shows  that 
those  thinkers  and  poets  must  have  opened  upon  some 
deeper,  richer  well  of  life,  in  the  fullness  of  whose  inspiring 
draughts  all  narrow  competition  is  forgotten.  The  living 
moment,  which  commenced  with  them,  has  been  for  some 
time  making  itself  felt  through  other  conventional  and  life- 
less literatures.  It  has  reached  us  here,  and  it  is  welcome. 
Its  influences  cannot  but  be  fruitful.  It  speaks  always  to 
the  young  life  of  the  people.  It  tells  the  reader  that  he  too  is 
something ;  it  salutes  with  quickening  emphasis  what  origi- 
nal force  and  fire  there  may  be  in  him.  It  is  philanthropic 
in  its  spirit;  it  is  earnest,  natural,  true,  and  truth-loving. 
It  hallows,  while  it  fertilizes  and  adorns  the  common  walks 
of  life.  To  the  common  interests  of  all  as  men  it  speaks; 
it  explores  that  great  common  field,  and  tells  us  with  the 
glow  of  ever-fresh  discovery,  how  boundless  are  its  riches; 
how  life,  and  thought,  and  poetry  and  beauty,  are  the  in- 
heritance of  Man,  and  not  of  any  class,  or  age,  or  nation ; 
and  how  each,  however  humble,  by  fidelity  to  himself,  shall 
find  the  natural  current  of  his  own  being  leading  back  into 
the  very  bosom  of  that  ocean.  More  especially  is  this  the 
poet's  mission ;  and  the  great  poets  of  Germany  in  these  days 
have  been  the  foremost  to  have  faith  to  try  and  prove  its 
efficacy.  From  the  poems  and  the  lives  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller  many  a  young  mind  has  caught  the  watch-word  of 
self-culture,  letting  him  speed  onwards." 


America  305 

In  addition  to  this  work,  Dwight  assisted  Brooks  in  the 
preparation  of  his  Songs  and  Ballads  from  the  German. 
He  wrote  several  reviews  on  English  literature  and  poetry 
for  the  Christian  Examiner,  and  in  1839  a  critique  of 
Schiller's  Wilhelm  Tell.  He  also  contributed  three  articles 
to  the  Dial,1  besides  an  original  poem,  Rest,  that  was  sup- 
posed  for  a  long  time   to  be   a   translation   from   Goethe. 

While  pastor  he  devoted  much  time  to  the  study  of  Ger- 
man and  to  translation,  and  often  deferred  the  composition 
of  his  sermon  until  Saturday  night  or  Sunday  morning. 
On  his  visits  to  his  parish  he  carried  with  him  German 
books  and  music,  which  he  was  only  too  glad  to  discuss  with 
eager  listeners.  From  this  grew  his  habit  of  giving  ad- 
dresses to  associations  on  music,  education,  and  literature. 

Dwight  made  for  Ditson,  the  music  publisher,  a  trans- 
lation of  Matthisson's  Adelaide,  adapted  to  Beethoven's 
music.  He  also  gave  lectures  on  music  before  the  "  Har- 
vard Musical  Association  "  and  other  societies,  and  in  1847 
a  course  of  four  lectures  in  New  York.2  Then  too,  he  di- 
rected the  musical  life  of  Brook  Farm  3  and  organized  mass 
clubs  there  and  in  Boston  for  the  study  and  practice  of  great 
masterpieces  of  music.  A  portion  of  the  Harbinger  was 
devoted  to  the  furtherance  of  musical  taste  and  knowledge. 
In  these  articles  Dwight  had  in  view  a  threefold  aim : 
criticism  of  music  as  an  art,  its  interpretation  as  an  expres- 
sion of  the  literature  of  the  age,  and  its  development  as  a 
science  with  other  sciences.  By  his  efforts  the  Harbinger 
soon  became  one  of  the  best  musical  journals  of  the  country. 

During  his  later  years  Dwight  was  seriously  considering 

1  Religion  of  Beauty.  Concerts  of  the  Past  Winter  in  Boston, 
Ideals  of  Everyday  Life,  and  a  poem,  Rest. 

2  Cf.  Hach's  Musical  Mag.,  Sept.,  1840,  and  Atlantic  Mon.,  Sept. 
and  Dec.,  1870. 

8  Nov.,  1841-47. 


306        Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

a  removal  to  New  York.  His  friends  on  the  Tribune, 
Ripley,  Dana,  and  Greeley,  wanted  him  as  a  co-worker. 
Parke  Godwin,  too  (Bryant's  son-in-law),  endeavored  to 
secure  him  for  the  Evening  Post.  The  reason  probably 
why  he  did  not  accept  such  propositions  was  the  fact  that  he 
was  considering  the  editorship  and  publication  of  an  inde- 
pendent journal,  to  be  the  "  organ  of  what  may  be  called  the 
Musical  Movement  in  our  country,  of  the  growing  love 
of  deep  and  genuine  music."  *  This  periodical,  although 
insisting  on  the  claims  of  "  classical  music,  was  to  be  im- 
partial and  catholic,  recognizing  whatever  was  good  in  sim- 
ple, popular,  or  modern  music,  whether  German  or  Italian." 
In  this  project  Dwight  had  the  warm  support  of  the  "  Har- 
vard Musical  Association."  The  first  number  of  Dwight's 
Journal  of  Music,  A  Paper  of  Art  and  Literature,  appeared 
April  10,  1852. 

Although  Dwight's  taste  was  for  the  German  music  of 
the  older  schools,  he  aimed  to  be  impartial  and  to  give 
every  school  an  opportunity  to  speak  for  itself  in  his  paper. 
Thus  there  appeared  in  translations  of  the  editor  a  series  of 
articles  by  Franz  Liszt  on  Friedrich  Chopin,  a  study  of 
Weber's  Freischiits  by  Hector  Berlioz,  A.  OulibichefFs 
Life  and  Times  of  Mozart,  as  well  as  other  translations 
from  French,  German,  or  Italian  writers.  In  spite  of  the 
fact  that  Dwight  did  not  personally  care  for  Wagner's 
music  and  his  theories,  that  composer  found  a  welcome  in 
his  Journal,  at  a  time  when  he  was  struggling  for  recogni- 
tion abroad. 

In  1859  Dwight  was  relieved  from  the  drudgery  of  being 

his  own  publisher.     The  musical  firm  of  Oliver  Ditson  & 

Co.  undertook  the  publication  of  the  Journal  and  gave  him 

a  salary  as  editor.     In  addition  now  to  editorials,  criticisms, 

1  Circular  issued  by  Dwight,  Feb.,  1852,  Cooke,  p.  147. 


America  307 

and  translations  he  added  to  each  number  the  new  feature 
of  a  piece  of  music.  In  this  way  the  subscribers  obtained 
musical  selections  from  Mendelssohn,  Schubert,  Bach, 
Bellini,  Wagner,  Gluck,  Donizetti,  Mozart,  and  Alfred  Jaell ; 
long  compositions,  as  Don  Giovanni  and  Der  Freischiitz, 
appearing  in  parts. 

During  this  period  Dwight  devoted  much  time  to  trans- 
lation. In  1859  appeared  his  versions  of  Heinrich  Wohl- 
fahrt's  Guide  to  Musical  Compositions  and  of  the  words  to 
Bach's  Saint  Matthew  Passion  Music,  published  by  Ditson. 
For  the  same  publisher  he  also  translated  many  German 
songs  and  poems.  In  1865  occurred  the  adaptation  of  sev- 
eral of  Heine's  lyrics  in  the  Buck  der  Lieder  to  selections 
from  Schumann's  Dichterliebe,  and  of  many  German  songs 
for  Ditson's  edition  of  the  song  music  of  Robert  Franz. 
His  translation  of  The  Piano  Teacher  by  Louis  Plaidy 
appeared  later  in  1875. 

On  the  death  of  Charles  T.  Perkins,  the  historian  of  the 
"  Handel  and  Haydn  Society,"  Dwight  was  requested  by 
that  body  to  finish  his  history.  It  appeared  in  1887.  Like- 
wise, for  the  New  England  Magazine  1  he  prepared  another 
sketch  of  the  "  Handel  and  Haydn  Society";  this  was,  in 
fact,  his  last  article  on  the  history  of  music  in  Boston.  In 
the  summer  of  1890,  durinj  the  absence  of  the  musical  editor 
of  the  Boston  Transcript,  he  took  charge  of  that  depart- 
ment with  much  success.  In  1894  he  published  Famous 
Composers  and  their  Works;  it  contained  an  article  on 
Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,  Dwight's  last  contribution 
to  that  art  to  which  he  had  consecrated  his  whole  life  and 
talent. 

'Dec,  1889. 


308         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Sarah  Margaret   Fuller   (1810-50) 

Margaret  Fuller  probably  owed  her  first  interest  in  Ger- 
man culture  toMme.  de  Stael.  As  early  as  May  14,  1826,  she 
speaks  of  this  "  brilliant  "  woman,  who  is  so  "  useful  on  a 
grand  scale,  on  liberalizing,  regenerating  principles."  x  Be- 
fore this  date,  however,  she  had  begun  the  study  of  German. 
In  a  letter  dated  Providence,  Oct.  21,  1831,  she  says  that 
she  first  took  up  the  study  of  German  in  1824,  and  her 
progress  "  was  like  the  rebound  of  a  string  pressed  almost 
to  bursting."  2  In  1832,  according  to  J.  F.  Clarke,  she  was 
attracted  "  by  the  wild  bugle-call  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  in  his 
romantic  articles  on  Richter,  Schiller,  and  Goethe,  which 
appeared  in  the  old  Foreign  Review,  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view, and  afterward  in  the  Foreign  Quarterly." 

"  I  believe,"  says  Clarke,  "  that  in  about  three  months 
from  the  time  that  Margaret  commenced  German,  she  was 
reading  with  ease  the  masterpieces  of  its  literature.  Her 
mind  expanded  under  this  influence,  as  the  apple  blossom 
at  the  end  of  a  warm  week  in  May.  The  thought  and  the 
beauty  of  this  rich  literature  equally  filled  her  mind  and 
fascinated  her  imagination."  3 

In  his  remarkable,  though  little  known  sketch  of  Margaret 
Fuller,  Emerson,  who  first  met  her  in  1835,  speaks  of  her 
extensive  knowledge  of  French,  Italian,  and  German  writers, 
and  adds  :  "  But  what  was  of  still  more  importance  toher  edu- 
cation,— she  had  read  German  books,  and  for  the  three  years 
before  I  knew  her,  almost  exclusively, — Lessing,   Schiller, 

1  Memoirs,  Boston  and  New  York,  1852,  I,  p.  55.  For  a  de- 
tailed account  of  Margaret  Fuller's  indebtedness  to  German  lit- 
erature and  thought,  see  F.  A.  Braun :  Margaret  Fuller  and  Goethe, 
New  York,  1910. 

2  Woman  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Boston,  1855,  p.  359. 

3  Memoirs,  I,  p.  114. 


America  309 

Richter,  Tieck,  Novalis,  and  above  all,  Goethe.  It  was  very 
obvious,  at  the  first  intercourse  with  her,  though  her  rich 
and  busy  mind  never  reproduced  undigested  reading,  that 
the  last  writer, — food  or  poison, — the  most  powerful  of  all 
mental  reagents, — the  pivotal  mind  in  modern  literature, — 
for  all  before  him  are  ancients,  and  all  who  have  read  him 
are  moderns, — that  this  mind  had  been  her  teacher,  and  of 
course,  the  place  was  filled,  nor  was  there  room  for  any 
other."  » 

From  Goethe,  Margaret  Fuller  imbibed  her  ethical  con- 
ceptions, religious  ideas,  and  philosophic  principles.  At 
first  her  narrow  Puritanic  conception  of  morality  came  into 
clash  with  the  German's  broad  ethical  principles,  but  ulti- 
mately she  recognized  the  force  and  right  of  his  humani- 
tarianism. 

Like  Goethe,  Margaret  Fuller's  whole  life  was  devoted 
to  self-culture,  the  natural  development  through  experi- 
ence of  the  innermost  powers  of  the  soul  in  all  their  in- 
tuitive force,  idealizing  character,  and  harmonious  beauty. 
"  Very  early,"  said  she,  "  I  perceived  that  the  object  of  life 
is  to  Grow." 

From  Nov.  6,  1839,  to  April  28,  1844,  she  gave  in 
Boston  a  series  of  "  Conversations  "  to  a  class  of  twenty- 
five  young  ladies.  The  meetings  were  held  in  the  home  of 
Dr.  Nathaniel  Peabody,  whose  three  daughters,  Elizabeth 
P.  Peabody,  Mrs.  Horace  Mann,  and  Mrs.  Nathaniel  Haw- 
thorne, were  her  friends,  and  like  her,  enthusiastic  students 
of  German.  These  conversations,  consisting  of  talks,  with 
questions  and  answers,  were  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  and 
generally  saturated  with  Goethean  ideas,  such  as  develop- 
ment of  personality,  study  of  man  and  character,  of  God 
and  the  universe,  vital  emphasis  on  life  and  activity. 

1  Memoirs,  I,  p.  242. 


310         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

While  teaching  Latin  and  French  in  Mr.  Alcott's  school 
in  Boston,  at  the  same  time  giving  private  instruction  in 
French,  Italian,  and  German,  Margaret  Fuller  found  time 
to  translate  German  authors,  such  as  De  Wette  and  Herder, 
one  evening  a  week  for  Dr.)  W.  E.  Channing  (1836-37). 
Her  first  great  work,  however,  was  her  translation  of 
Eckermann's  Conversations  zvith  Goethe,  which  appeared 
in  1839,  as  the  fourth  volume  of  Ripley's  Foreign  Specimens. 

To  her  translation  Margaret  Fuller  prefixed  a  long  essay 
on  Goethe,  "  containing  many  fine  thoughts  upon  his  moral 
and  intellectual  character."  *  In  it  she  pleads  for  the  his- 
torical viewpoint,  and  maintains  that  "  the  greatness  of 
Goethe  his  nation  has  felt  for  more  than  half  a  century  ; 
the  world  is  beginning  to  feel  it,  but  time  may  not  yet  have 
ripened  his  criticism ;  especially  as  the  grand  historical 
standing-point  is  the  only  one  from  which  a  comprehensive 
view  could  be  taken  of  him."  In  thus  exalting  a  historical 
viewpoint,  Margaret  Fuller  deserves  the  honor  of  precedence 
over  Carlyle  and  the  German  critics.2 

Margaret  Fuller's  editorship  of  the  Dial  has  been  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  Ripley.  According  to  Higginson, 
"  she  was  the  organizer  and  the  executive  force  of  the  first 
thoroughly  American  literary  enterprise." 3  She  edited 
this  magazine  practically  without  recompense  for  the  sake 
of  "dear  New  England"4    (1840-42).     By  her  inspiring 

1  TV.  Y.  Review,  pp.  233-34,  July,  1839. 

2  Cf.  Emerson's  letter  to  Carlyle,  Concord,  July  4,  1839,  Cor- 
respondence, I,  p.  254:  "I  shall  send  you  presently  a  copy  of  a 
translation  published  here  of  Eckermann  by  Margaret  Fuller,  a 
friend  of  mine  and  of  yours,  for  the  sake  of  its  preface  mainly. 
She  is  a  most  accomplished  lady,  and  her  culture  belongs  rather 
to  Europe  than  to  America."  Cf.  Graham's  Mag.,  XXIX,  pp. 
262-63,  Nov.,  1846,  review  of  Fuller's  Papers  on  Art  and  Literature. 

8  M.  F.  Ossoli,  p.  130. 
4  Memoirs,  II,  p.  26. 


America  311 

articles  she  strove  to  create  a  native  national  literature, 
original,  idealistic,  and  profound,  a  literature  which  ex- 
presses the  innermost  feelings  of  the  heart  and  the  personal 
experiences  of  life.  She  was,  in  Higginson's  words,  "  the 
best  literary  critic  whom  America  has  yet  seen."  l  Even 
Edgar  Allan  Poe,  the  fastidious  connoisseur,  referred  to 
her  "  high  genius  "  and  the  "  graphicality  "  of  her  descrip- 
tions and  declared  her  style  was  excellent,  piquant,  vivid, 
terse,  bold,  luminous,  in  spite  of  her  "  frequent  unjustifiable 
Carlyle-isms."  2 

As  early  as  1835-36  Margaret  Fuller  had  planned  to 
write  a  comprehensive  life  of  Goethe  and  for  this  purpose 
had  begun  to  collect  materials  from  original  sources.  Un- 
fortunately she  was  prevented  from  finishing  this  task  by 
circumstances  and  by  her  short  life.  One  of  the  fruits  of 
this  intensive  study,  however,  is  her  masterly  essay,  Men- 
zel's  View  of  Goethe,  which  appeared  in  the  Dial  January 
1 84 1.  It  was  probably  due  to  the  translation  of  Mensel's 
German  Literature  by  Professor  C.  C.  Felton  of  Harvard 
in  1840.3  In  this  article  Margaret  Fuller  defends  Goethe 
against  all  the  charges  brought  by  that  zealous  patriot  and 
narrow  philistinc,  Wolfgang  Menzel.  She  shows  that  Goethe, 
even  in  those  most  criticised  works,  Faust,  Die  Wahlver- 
wandtschaften,  and  Wilhelm  Meister,  was  a  great  ethical 
and  religious  teacher,  the  "  great  philosopher,  who  teaches 
what  Christ  did,  to  use  without  over-valuing  the  world."  4 
She  insists  furthermore  that  Goethe  was  a  liberator  of 
thought  and  personality  from  mere  pedantry  and  sophistry, 
and  that  his  patriotism  was  evinced  in  his  own  peculiar  field 

1  M.  F.  Ossoli,  p.  290. 

4  International  Mon.  Mag.,  I,  pp.  162-65,  Aug.  5,  1850. 

'  Ripley's  Foreign  Specimens,  VII,  VIII,  IX. 

*  Memoirs,  I,  p.  161. 


312         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne" 

of  activity.  To  make  such  avowals  was  a  proof  of  her  keen 
intuitive  vision,  for  at  that  time  even  such  teachers  as  Long- 
fellow and  Emerson  were  either  attacking  Goethe  with 
severe  criticism  or  accepting  him  with  reservations  and 
qualified  admiration.  For  the  second  volume  of  the  Dial 
she  wrote  an  essay  on  Goethe  which  included  the  transla- 
tions of  Faust's  oath,  Iphigenie's  soliloquy,  and  other  selec- 
tions from  that  drama.  This  critique,  says  Clarke,  "  is  in  my 
estimation,  one  of  the  best  things  she  has  written.  And  as 
far  as  it  goes,  is  one  of  the  best  criticisms  of  Goethe 
extant."  * 

Besides  these  studies  and  translations  may  be  mentioned 
her  versions  of  Goethe's  Eins  und  Alles,  Dauer  im  Wechsel, 
Prometheus,  Eagles  and  Doves,  The  Consolers,  the  Epi- 
logue to  the  Tragedy  of  Essex,  and  Tasso.  Then,  too,  she 
translated  part  of  the  letters  of  Fraulein  Giinderode  and 
Bettina  von  Arnim  (1841),2  Schiller's  To  My  Friends,  Kor- 
ner's  Dissatisfaction,  and  Uhland's  Justification.  Other  ar- 
ticles dealing  with  German  thought  are  her  essays  on 
Beethoven,  Shelley's  Poems,  Bailey's  Festus,  Deutsche 
Schnellpost,  Emerson's  Essays,  Klopstock  and  Meta,  Mrs. 
Jameson's  Memoirs  and  Essays,  and  her  original  poem 
on  Richter.  All  these  critical  essays  are  unsurpassed  in 
their  kind,  and  bear  witness  to  her  superior  mental  en- 
dowments. 

James  Freeman  Clarke  (1810-88) 

James  Freeman  Clarke  was  a  leader  in  the  study  of  com- 
parative religion  and  in  the  diffusion  of  German  thought. 
His  autobiography  states  that  his  first  interest  in  German 

1  Memoirs,  I,  p.  96. 

*  Remainder  completed  by  Mrs.  Minna  Wesselhoeft,  i860. 


America  313 

culture  was  due  to  Marsh.  A  glimpse  of  Coleridge  con- 
firmed his  "  longing  for  a  higher  philosophy  than  that  of 
John  Locke  and  David  Hartley,  the  metaphysicians  most 
in  vogue  with  the  Unitarians  down  to  the  time  of 
Channing." 

While  at  Harvard  Clarke  was  in  constant  association 
with  the  other  German  enthusiasts.  Since  his  Latin  school 
days,  he  had  been  on  intimate  terms  with  William  Henry 
Channing,  the  nephew  of  Dr.  Channing.  His  admiration 
for  the  famous  preacher  was  unbounded.  In  his  opinion 
he  was  one  of  the  very  few  original  theologians  in  America.1 
At  Divinity  Hall,  Cambridge,  his  great  friendship  with 
Frederick  Hedge  began.  He  also  met  Emerson  there,  but 
their  close  personal  acquaintance  did  not  start  until  1832. 
In  his  Journal,  Dec.  5,  1832,  he  writes  that  he  had  a 
conversation  with  Emerson  on  Goethe,  German  literature, 
and  Carlyle.2 

In  1829  Clarke  first  met  Margaret  Fuller,  and  until  she 
went  to  Groton  in  1833  he  saw  or  heard  from  her  every 
day.3  Together  they  read  German,  and  in  later  life  he 
would  always  speak  with  enthusiasm  of  the  larger  life 
which  opened  upon  so  many  of  them  under  Goethe's  leader- 
ship." 4  In  his  diary  he  records  his  aim,  Oct.  16,  1832: 
'  I  wish  to  write  a  good  deal,  to  get  an  individual  style,  and 
to  read  little,  and  that  principally  German."  5  Thus  by  1833, 
when  he  went  to  Louisville  as  pastor  of  the  Unitarian 
church,  he  had  read  the  "  largest  part  of  the  works  of 

1  Cf.   preface  to   Theodore,  p.   xii. 

2  Autobiography,  Correspondence,  and  Diary,  edited  by  E.  E. 
Hale,  p.  87. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  62. 

4  Ibid.,  pp.  90-91. 
0  Ibid.,  p.  91. 


314         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Goethe,  Schiller,  Tieck,  Novalis,  and  other  German 
writers."  1 

Soon  afterward  the  Western  Messenger  was  established 
at  Cincinnati  by  the  Unitarian  association.  Clarke,  who 
had  been  instrumental  in  its  organization,  became  chief 
editor  in  November  1837,  holding  this  position  for  two 
years  until  his  return  to  the  East. 

Before  Clarke's  return  to  the  East  he  was  translating 
from  the  German  of  De  Wette  a  volume  on  theology  for 
Ripley's  Foreign  Specimens.  For  this  work,  Theodore,  or 
the  Sceptic's  Conversion,2  Clarke  wrote  a  long  preface  in 
which  he  discussed  the  different  systems  of  religious 
thought  current  in  Germany.  In  it  he  draws  a  very  in- 
teresting comparison  between  the  realm  of  German  theology 
and  the  land  of  Canaan.  He  says  that  the  theologians  of 
Andover,  Amherst,  Burlington,  and  Boston,  considering 
the  German  scholars  as  men  of  erudition  but  as  infidels, 
declare :  "  Go  up  at  once  and  possess  the  land,  for  we  are 
well  able  to  overcome  it."  But  the  men  who  do  go  up  to 
seek  the  land  come  back  with  the  report :  "  There  we  saw 
the  giants,  the  sons  of  Anak,  and  we  were  in  our  own 
sight  as  grasshoppers,  and  so  we  were  in  their  sight."  In 
German  theology  are  often  found,  it  is  true,  elements  of 
infidelity,  naturalism,  and  mysticism,  but  also  deep  faith, 
strong  piety,  and  sound  theology.  The  problem  is,  there- 
fore, to  separate  error  from  truth.  Why  do  Americans 
study  German  theology?  Because  no  profound  and  ac- 
curate works  in  critical  philology  exist  in  England  and 
America.  "  The  qualities  in  the  German  mind  which  give 
its  theology  this  preeminence  are  its  life,  freedom,  depth, 

1  Hale  :  p.  70. 

2  History    of    the    Culture   of   a    Protestant    Clergyman,   2   vols., 
Boston;  1st  ed.  in  1841 ;  2nd  ed.  in  1856. 


America  315 

and  comprehensiveness."  The  few  original  works  on 
theology  in  America  are  generally  by  the  adherents  of 
obscure  or  heretical  sects.  In  Germany  the  religious  litera- 
ture is  free  from  party  or  sectarian  spirit.  The  Germans 
are  free-minded  and  large-souled  scholars,  serving  truth,  not 
sect.  A  better  state  of  religious  feeling  prevails  there  be- 
cause of  the  freedom  from  empirical  philosophy,  as  in  Eng- 
land. Religion  is  a  living  principle,  and  "  profound  thought 
supplies  the  medium  which  unites  religious  feeling  and  prac- 
tical life."  Then  too,  in  England  there  are  only  fragments 
and  scraps  of  knowledge.  The  Germans  on  the  other  hand 
strive  for  totality  and  completeness,  and  build  up  a  system 
from  a  doctrinal  basis.  Clarke  then  discusses  De  Wette  and 
his  work  Theodore,  a  book  which  covers  in  scope  the  whole 
field  of  religious  thought  and  criticism.  In  his  work 
De  Wette  aimed  to  show  that  the  best  means  of  removing 
scepticism  produced  by  narrow  and  shallow  study  were  pro- 
found examination  and  deep  meditation.  Through  the  clear 
and  concise  representation  of  the  various  theological  tend- 
encies of  the  time,  one  might  arrive  at  a  juster  religious 
view.  In  translating  this  work  Clarke's  aim  was  similar  to 
the  German  author's.  He  writes :  "  We  send  out  physicians 
to  investigate  the  symptoms  of  a  disease  which  is  traveling 
from  country  to  country,  that  we  may  learn,  before  it 
reaches  us,  how  it  may  best  be  treated.  Just  so.  if  we  fear 
the  Infidelity  of  France,  the  Socialism  of  England,  or  the 
Transcendentalism  of  Germany,  it  is.  well  to  study  them 
before  they  reach  us.  For,  in  the  present  age,  no  quarantine 
can  keep  out  the  mental  epidemics,  the  seeds  of  which  are 
carried  from  land  to  land  in  the  subtile  air.  Thoughts 
float  in  the  atmosphere,  and  healthy  or  diseased  minds  shed 
their  influences  through  all  lands." 

In  an  interesting  account  of  his  experiences  during  a  trip 


316         Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

to  Europe,  Clarke  states  his  conception  of  Goethe  and  his 
works.1  He  writes :  "  There  is  no  great  man  of  modern 
times  concerning  the  character  and  measure  of  whose  great- 
ness, opinion — out  of  Germany  at  least — is  so  much  divided. 
From  Thomas  Carlyle,  who  regards  him  as  a  demi-god,  to 
Andrews  Norton,  who  looks  upon  him  as  little  better  than 
a  demi-devil,  there  is  space  for  a  variety  of  opinions.  For 
myself,  having  studied  his  writings  more  or  less,  for  twenty 
years,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  more  profound  and  creative 
intellect  has  not  visited  the  earth  in  these  latter  days.  The 
basis  of  his  mind  is  a  healthy  realism ;  he  is  a  matter-of- 
fact  man,  no  mystic,  but  in  the  possession  of  a  clear,  sharp 
understanding,  which  draws  accurate  outlines  around 
every  thought  and  thing.  His  method  is  to  take  his  de- 
parture always  from  actual  experience.  He  received  in  his 
cradle  the  happy  birth-gift  of  an  insatiate  curiosity  and  a 
firm  belief  in  the  significance  of  all  things.  He  studies 
nature,  therefore,  to  find  its  meaning,  and  with  a  sharpness 
of  observation  which  makes  him  a  modern  Aristotle,  he 
possesses  a  faith  in  the  deeply  marvelous  character  of  the 
universe,  which  fits  him  for  the  companionship  of  Plato. 
There  are  no  words  which  occur  more  frequently  in  his 
writings  than  those  which  express  this  feeling  of  the  marvel- 
ous ;  such  as  '  Wunderlich,'  '  Wunderbar,'  and  so  on.  This 
healthy  balance  of  faculty,  this  harmonious  union  of  un- 
wearied powers  of  observation  and  large  gifts  of  reflection, 
which  led  him  ever  from  analysis  to  synthesis,  which  made 
his  poetry  philosophical  and  his  philosophy  poetry,  gives  to 
Goethe  the  seal  of  commanding  greatness.  The  chief  ad- 
vantage of  studying  his  writings  is  to  see  in  them  what  a 
wealth  of  thought  he  could  find  under  the  surface  of  our 
everyday  existence,  and  how  to  an  earnest  mind  common 

1  Eleven  Weeks  in  Europe,  Boston,  1852,  pp.  128-33. 


America  317 

life  teems  with  wonders.  Whatever  other  duties  he  may 
have  neglected,  one  at  least  he  faithfully  fulfilled,  that  of 
thorough  self-culture.  Everything  in  his  character  was 
secondary  to  this ;  rank,  reputation,  and  all  outward  ad- 
vantages, were  to  him  merely  opportunities  for  new  ex- 
periences; for  new  development  of  his  own  faculties.  So 
to  copy  his  own  words,  concerning  Schiller, — '  So  he  went 
onward,  ever  onward,  for  eighty-three  years ;  then  indeed 
he  had  gone  far  enough.'  In  science  he  had  done  more  than 
any  other  man  to  change  the  analytical  tendency  of  the 
eighteenth  century  into  the  synthetic  tendency  of  the  nine- 
teenth ;  to  change  science  from  an  arbitrary  to  a  natural 
system ;  to  make  it  dynamical  rather  than  mechanical ;  a 
growth  out  of  a  living  germ,  instead  of  a  mere  collection 
of  facts  and  laws." 

In  1876  Clarke  published  a  small  volume  of  poetical  trans- 
lations called  Exotics.  A  large  number  of  poems  were 
from  the  German  of  Goethe,  Heine,  and  Geibel. 

One  of  the  finest  contributions  to  the  cause  of  education 
in  any  language  is  Clarke's  Self -Culture,  a  series  of  twenty- 
one  lectures  given  in  1880,  from  which  I  quote  a  few  sen- 
tences showing  his  conception  of  "  culture." 

"  Let  a  person  know  all  about  the  Bible,  let  him  know 
all  of  Shakespeare,  or  let  him  be  perfectly  familiar  with 
the  best  of  Lord  Bacon's  writings,  or  of  Leibniz,  or  of 
Swedenborg,  or  of  Plato,  or  Dante,  or  Goethe, — any  one  of 
tliem,  and  he  will  be  a  highly  cultured  man."  x  '''  Select  the 
great  teachers  of  the  race,  the  great  masters,  and  read  them. 
Read  Bacon,  Milton,  Shakespeare.  Dante,  Homer,  Herod- 
otus', Thucydides,  Schiller,  Goethe,  Lessing.  Do  not  read 
about   these   authors    in   magazines,   but    read    the   authors 

1  Essay  2,  p.  82. 


318         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne" 

themselves.'-  :  "  Civilization  is  another  name  for  thinking. 
Civilized  man  is  thinking  man."  2  '  Truth  spoken  in  love, 
truth  acted  in  love,  truth  sought  for  lovingly,  truth  held 
lovingly,  these  make  the  complete  man."  3  "  The  best  work 
will  be  done  when  each  does  his  own  work,  and  lets  every- 
one else  do  and  be  what  God  made  him  for."  4 

Clarke  has  done  an  immense  service  to  American  culture 
by  giving  breadth  to  published  discussions  of  ethics,  litera- 
ture, and  religious  philosophy.  His  life  is  an  example  of 
constant  growth  and  of  truth  to  his  inner  self. 

Theodore  Parker   (1810-60) 

To  George  Ripley  belongs  the  credit  of  having  stimulated 
Theodore  Parker's  interest  in  German  culture  and  theology. 
Ripley's  books  were  like  "  manna  from  heaven  "  5  for  Parker, 
for  even  as  late  as  1843  the  only  German  books  to  be  ob- 
tained in  Boston  or  Philadelphia  were  Goethe's  and  Schil- 
ler's works,  the  Bible  and  the  Psalm  book.6  While  pastor 
at  West  Roxbury,  he  read  not  only  the  Greek  philosophers 
but  Goethe,  Schiller,  Klopstock,  Coleridge,  Scott,  Byron, 
De  Wette,  Jacobi,  Fichte,  and  Spinoza.  Goethe  he  read  ex- 
pressly for  the  "  deliberate  exploration  of  his  life  and  char- 
acter." 7  Like  Emerson,  Parker  was  at  first  repelled  by  the 
German,  but  after  reading  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  he  had 
a  better  opinion   of   the   "  Giant   of    Germany." 8     In   his 

1  Essay  14,  p.  317. 

2  Essay  6,  p.  132. 

*  Essay  6,  p.  152. 

*  Essay  20,  p.  429. 

6  Cf.  E.  E.  Hale:  Autobiography  of  Clarke,  p.  87. 

6  Frothingham :  Th.  Parker,  p.  148. 

7  Weiss,  II,  p.  20. 

*  Frothingham,   p.    58. 


America  319 

Journal  he  writes  in  1838:  'I  shall  not  dare  attempt  a 
mecanique  celeste  of  Goethe.  The  greatness  of  the  sub- 
ject appalls  me.  My  plummet  will  not  fathom  his  depths, 
nor  will  my  telescope  reveal  his  far  heights.  He  is  so  vast 
and  so  many-sided  ;  I  am  puzzled,  lost  in  the  labyrinth  of  the 
man.  .  .  .  Goethe  is  an  artist,  not  a  man.  .  .  Goethe  never 
seems  to  have  looked  on  men  as  brothers."  x 

One  reason  for  this  lack  of  appreciation  of  Goethe  was 
the  fact  that  in  Parker  the  religious  sentiment  was  supreme. 
His  ethics  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  philosophy  of  intui- 
tion, of  his  great  affection  for  humanity.  Like  Feuerbach, 
Parker  believed  in  man's  direct  perception  of  God  and  his 
laws.  Though  not  the  creator  of  the  new  religious  phi- 
losophy, he  was  the  first  to  popularize  it  for  the  common 
people.  Another  reason  was  that  Parker's  aesthetic  percep- 
tion was  defective.  His  interest  was  in  the  useful  and  prac- 
tical crafts  rather  than  in  the  fine  arts.  The  only  poetry 
he  cared  for  was  didactic  verse  or  the  ballads  of  the  people. 
For  music  he  had  no  love  whatever. 

And  this  attitude  remained  unchanged  all  his  life.  While 
in  Rome,  that  city  of  art,  his  interest  was  elsewhere,  as  his 
letter  to  Ripley  shows.2  He  writes :  "  I  can't  attend  much 
to  the  fine  arts,  painting  and  sculpture,  which  require  a 
man  to  be  indoors.  And,  by  the  way,  the  fine  arts  do  not 
interest  me  so  much  as  the  coarse  arts  which  feed,  clothe, 
house,  and  comfort  a  people.  I  should  rather  be  such  a 
great  man  as  Franklin  than  a  Michael  Angelo ;  nay,  if  I 
had  a  son,  I  should  rather  see  him  a  great  mechanic,  who 
organized  use,  like  the  late  George  Stephenson  in  England, 
than  a  great  painter  like  Rubens,  who  only  copied  beauty. 
In  short,  I  take  more  interest  in  a  cattle-show  than  in  a 

1  Frothingham,  p.  109. 

=  Weiss,  II,  p.  377,  Oct.  29,  1859. 


320        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

picture-show,  and  feel  more  sympathy  with  the  Pope's  bull 
than  his  bulluna.  Men  talk  to  me  about  the  '  absence  of 
art '  in  America.  ...  I  tell  them  we  have  cattle-shows,  and 
mechanics'  fairs,  and  plows  and  harrows,  and  saw-mills ; 
sowing-machines  and  reaping-machines ;  thrashing-ma- 
chines, planing-machines,  etc." 

A  work  that  made  a  deep  impression  on  Parker  was 
Strauss's  Life  of  Jesus,  published  in  1835.  With  Baur's 
Pastoral  Epistles  and  Vatke's  Religion  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, it  was  one  of  the  most  significant  theological  works 
of  the  time.  On  his  return  to  America  in  1836-37,  Rev. 
Henry  A.  Walker  brought  a  copy  with  him  and  lent  it 
to  Parker,  then  pastor  at  West  Roxbury.  He  reviewed  it 
for  the  Christian  Examiner  (1840).1  The  next  year,  at 
the  ordination  of  C.  C.  Shackford,  appeared  his  theological 
declaration  of  war,  his  South  Boston  sermon  on  the  Tran- 
sient and  Permanent  in  Christianity.  This  challenge  to  his 
theological  friends  was  further  increased  by  the  publication 
of  a  discourse  entitled  Matters  Relating  to  Religion  (1842). 
Deprived  now  of  his  church,  excommunicated  by  the  Uni- 
tarian Society,  Parker  remained  undaunted.  After  traveling 
and  studying  in  Europe  and  meeting  such  thinkers  as  Schel- 
ling  and  Hegel,  he  returned  to  Boston.  Here  he  established 
an  independent  church,  the  Twenty-eighth  Congregational 
Society,  of  which  he  was  pastor  until  ill-health  obliged  him 
to  give  up  the  ministry  (1859).  He  continued  to  preach  the 
gospel  of  true  religion,  of  a  loving  God,  who  is  the  "  great 
Father  and  Mother  of  us  all,"  2  and  earned  the  distinction 
of  being  the  "  most  Christian  minister  in  all  our  common- 
wealth." 

Parker's  studies  in  the  field  of  German  theological  criti- 

1  Weiss,   I,  p.   122. 

2  Wendell  Phillips :  Tributes,  pp.  41,  53,  and  34. 


America  321 

cism  were  very  extensive.  A  notable  contribution  to  that 
cause  was  his  translation  of  De  Wette's  Critical  and  His- 
torical Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament  (1843).  He  also  contributed  to  the  Dial  and 
the  Examiner  several  articles  on  popular  education  and 
German  literature.1  One  of  these  articles  2  is  most  enter- 
taining and  affords  a  view  of  Parker's  liberal  mind  and 
quaint  and  characteristic  style.  Parker  says  that  the  Ger- 
man epidemic  is  constantly  extending  and  has  already  com- 
mitted most  frightful  ravages  in  boarding-schools,  colleges, 
and  universities ;  in  fact,  "  no  place  is  sacred,  not  the  church 
is  free,"  for  it  has  even  "  attacked  clergymen  in  silk  and 
in  lawn." 

"  It  is  thought  that 
'Fever  and  ague,  jaundice  and  catarrh, 
The  grim-looked  tyrant's  heavy  horse  of  war, 
And  apoplexies,  those  light  troops  of  death, 
That  use  small  ceremony  with  our  breath ' 

are  all  nothing  to  the  German  epidemic."  The  only  remedy 
for  this  plague  is  to  wear  a  copy  of  the  Westminster  Cate- 
chism or  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Council  of  Trent 
as  an  amulet  around  the  neck  and  have  "  a  strong  infusion 
of  Dullness."  The  class  who  oppose  German  literature 
wholesale,  says  Parker,  are  like  the  Turkish  judge  who  con- 
demns the  criminal  before  trying  him  ;  it  saves  trouble  and 
worry,  and  besides,  it  is  vastly  better  that  ninety-nine  inno- 
cent persons  should  suffer  outrageous  torture  than  that  one 
guilty  creature  should  escape.  As  for  himself  and  the  other 
scholars  who  are  studying  German,  as  they  would  Greek  and 
Latin,  they  find  that  "  German  literature  is  the  fairest,  the 

1  These    articles    were    later   collected    and    published    under    the 
title  of  Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays,  1849 

2  German  Literature:  Dial,  I,  pp.  315-39,  Jan.,  1841. 


322         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

richest,  the  most  original,  fresh  and  religious  literature  of 
all  modern  times."  Then  Parker  discusses  the  cultural 
labors  of  the  Germans ;  they  are  the  collectors  of  facts, 
the  editors  of  the  classics,  the  authors  of  grammars  and 
lexicons;  in  physical  geography,  and  history  of  all  sorts — 
literary,  civil,  political,  ancient, — they  are  the  leaders;  as 
theological  critics  and  authors  of  ecclesiastical  histories  they 
have  no  rivals ;  in  poetry,  literary  criticism,  and  elegant  let- 
ters they  are  superior  to  other  nations ;  and  in  modern  ideal- 
istic philosophy  they  are  supreme.  "  Silently  these  lights 
arose  and  went  up  the  sky  without  noise,  to  take  their 
place  among  the  fixed  stars  of  Genius,  and  shine  with  them, 
names  that  will  not  fade  out  of  heaven  until  some  ages 
shall  have  passed  away.  These  men  were  thinkers  all ;  deep, 
mighty  thinkers.  They  knelt  reverently  down  before  Nature, 
with  religious  hearts,  and  asked  her  questions.  They  sat 
on  the  brink  of  the  well  of  Truth,  and  continued  to  draw 
for  themselves  and  the  world." 

The  mantle  of  genius  which  was  possessed  by  the  earlier 
English  poets,  historians,  divines,  and  philosophers  has 
fallen  on  the  Germans,  not  on  the  English,  whose  works  are 
deficient  in  depth  and  purity  of  sentiment.  To  Parker 
"  there  is  one  peculiar  charm  in  this  literature,  quite  un- 
equaled  ...  in  modern  days  .  .  .  the  religious  character 
of  German  works."  This  religious  literature  "  stands  as  an 
unconscious  witness  to  the  profound  piety  of  the  German 
heart."  It  may  almost  be  said  to  be  "  the  only  Christian 
national  literature  the  world  has  ever  seen."  Of  course, 
German  literature  has  some  immoral  and  irreligious  works, 
but  they  are  rare.  The  highest  ideal  of  Christian  literature 
has  not  yet,  in  Parker's  opinion,  been  reached,  but  the 
German  literature  approaches  the  nearest  to  the  Christian 
ideal  of  literary  art.     Parker  does  not  believe,  however,  in 


America  323 

its  imitation  by  foreign  nations ;  for  each  nation  has  its 
defects.  "  If  Transcendentalism  is  bad,  so  is  Paleyism  and 
Materialism.  Truth  is  possessed  entire  by  no  sect,  German 
or  English.  It  requires  all  schools  to  get  at  all  Truth,  as 
the  whole  church  is  needed  to  preach  the  whole  Gospel." 
Much  freedom  in  thought  means  more  truth,  but  also  more 
room  for  error.  '  We  hope  light  from  Germany ;  but  we 
expect  shadows  with  it,"  he  says.  The  best  is  to  weigh 
German  literature  in  an  even  balance  and  take  it  for  what 
it  is  worth.  As  to  Menzel's  history,  it  is  unmanly  in  its 
hostility  to  Goethe  and  in  its  personal  abuse.  Menzel  is 
the  "  Berserker  of  modern  critics."  He  tries  the  work  by 
a  moral,  not  a  critical  or  artistic  standard.  Besides,  his 
knowledge  was  very  superficial,  sometimes  resulting  in 
ludicrous  mistakes.  German  literature  cannot  be  justly 
surveyed  by  an  amateur;  so  Menzel's  work  should  be  read 
with  caution,  for  it  does  not  give  a  true  idea  of  the  German 
mind  and  its  workings. 

Although  Parker  received  no  recognition  in  America  for 
his  literary  and  cultural  services  his  attainments  were  greatly 
appreciated  abroad,  as  letters  from  many  distinguished 
scholars  attest.  His  complete  works  were  translated  into 
German  in  1854-57. 

Ralph   Waldo   Emerson    (1803-82) 

Although  Emerson  was  the  friend  of  such  German  en- 
thusiasts as  Ticknor  and  Everett,  and  the  other  men  whom 
we  have  lately  been  discussing,  it  was  not  until  he  came  into 
personal  relations  with  Carlyle  that  he  realized  the  true 
worth  of  Goethe's  teachings.1     He  thereupon  became  "  the 

1  Cf.  Emerson's  Works,  IV,  p.  295,  note.  Hedge  wrote :  "  T  tried 
to  interest  him  in   German  literature,  but  he  laughingly  said   that 


324         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

American  commentator  on  Goethe,  or  rather,  perhaps,  the 
disciple  of  Goethe  through  Carlyle — a  sort  of  admirer  and 
critic  at  second-hand."  * 

While  a  student  in  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School  Emer- 
son became  much  interested  in  German  theology.  In  1823 
he  wrote  to  a  friend  at  Andover :  "  I  am  delighted  to  hear 
there  is  such  a  profound  studying  of  German  and  Hebrew." 
During  this  same  period  he  was  reading  Mme.  de  Stael's 
works,  as  the  entries  in  his  Journal  show.  In  1824  he  read 
Leibniz,  Mackintosh,  and  De  Stael's  French  Revolution,2 
the  next  year  he  read  her  Germany,3  and  continued  in  the 
following  years  to  study  her  works.4  In  1831  began  his 
study  of  Schiller,  Schelling,  and  Miiller ;  later  he  read  Jung- 
Stilling,  Goethe  (apud  Carlyle),  Schiller,  Schlegel,  and 
Hegel. 


as  he  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  subject,  he  should  assume  that 
it  was  not  worth  knowing.  Later  he  studied  German,  mainly  for 
the  purpose  of  acquainting  himself  with  Goethe,  to  whom  his 
attention  had  been  directed  by  Carlyle."  In  the  Centenary  edition 
(IV,  p.  368)  of  Emerson's  Works  there  is  a  note  which  explains 
this  apparent  dislike  to  Goethe.  William  Emerson,  an  elder 
brother,  studied  theology  at  Gottingen,  where  his  traditional  re- 
ligion was  shaken  by  German  philosophy  and  criticism.  He  went 
to  Weimar  to  ask  Goethe's  advice  whether  it  were  not  better  to 
abandon  his  chosen  profession.  Goethe,  according  to  the  unwritten 
traditions  of  the  Emerson  family,  received  William  kindly  and 
counseled  him  to  "  persevere  in  his  profession,  complying  with 
the  usual  forms,  to  preach  as  best  he  could,  and  not  trouble  his 
family  and  his  hearers  with  his  doubts."  William,  however,  obeyed 
his  inner  convictions,  gave  up  the  ministry,  and  devoted  himself  to 
law.  This  advice  to  follow  expediency,  instead  of  conscience, 
probably  made  a  lasting  impression  on  the  young  Ralph,  and  kept 
him  from  even  reading  Goethe's  writings. 

1  Arcturas,  I,  p.  278,  Apr.,  1841. 

2 II,  pp.  34-35. 

'  II,  pp.  225-26. 

4  II,  pp.  225-26,  279-80,  442-43- 


America  325 

According  to  the  Centenary  Edition,1  Emerson's  first  in- 
terest in  German  thought  was  due  to  Coleridge.  That  this 
is  a  pure  misconception  or  misconstruction  of  the  facts  and 
that  the  honor  belongs  to  Mme.  de  Stael,  is  obvious.  His 
Journal  shows  that  he  did  not  begin  to  read  Coleridge  until 
1829,  whereas  the  entries  in  1824,  1825,  1826,  1827,  1829, 
and  1 83 1  prove  that  he  was  reading  her  works  previous  to 
his  acquaintance  with  Coleridge. 

Emerson's  study  of  German  and  of  Goethe,  constantly 
encouraged  by  his  lively  correspondence  with  Carlyle,  dates 
from  his  trip  to  Europe  in  1833.  In  his  correspondence  and 
in  his  journals  may  be  traced  his  German  reading  and  his 
"  ascending  regard  "  2  for  Goethe. 

After  the  appearance  of  Carlyle's  version  of  Wilhelm 
Meister  and  his  Sartor  Resartus,  Emerson  wrote  him, 
Nov.  20,  1834,  expressing  his  admiration  of  Sartor, 
and  adding :  "  With  him  [Goethe]  I  am  becoming  ac- 
quainted, but  mine  must  be  a  qualified  admiration.  .  .  .  The 
Puritan  in  me  accepts  no  apology  for  bad  morals  in  such 
as  he."  3  Carlyle  answered  from  London,  Feb.  3,  1835 :4 
"  Your  objections  to  Goethe  are  very  natural,  and  even 
bring  you  nearer  me.  Nevertheless  I  am  by  no  means 
sure  it  were  not  your  wisdom,  at  this  moment,  to  set  about 
learning  the  German  language  with  a  new  view  towards 
studying  him  mainly !  .  .  .  On  the  whole,  I  suspect  you  yet 
know  only  Goethe  the  Heathen  (Ethnic)  ;  but  you  will  know 

• 

1  V,  p.  330. 

2  Correspondence  of  Grimm  ami  Emerson,  Jan.  6,  1871. 

8  Correspondence  of  Emerson  and  Carlyle.  I,  pp.  29-30.  Emerson 
attended  to  the  American  edition  of  Sartor  in  1836,  and  in  1838 
collected  Carlyle's  articles  on  German  literature  from  the  reviews, 
editing  them  in  book  form,  under  the  title  of  Critical  and  Mis- 
cellaneous Essays. 

4  Ibid.,  I,  pp.  39-40. 


326         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Goethe  the  Christian  by  and  by  and  like  that  one  far  bet- 
ter." The  next  year  this  entry  appears  in  Emerson's  Jour- 
nal: "  Goethe  is  the  high  priest  of  the  age.  He  is  the  truest 
of  all  writers.  His  books  are  all  records  of  what  has  been 
lived  and  his  sentences  and  words  seem  to  see."  1  Emer- 
son was  lavish  in  his  praise  for  Goethe's  universality  and 
powers  of  observation.  "  A  characteristic  of  Goethe  is  his 
choice  of  topics.  What  an  eye  for  the  measure  of  things. 
...  It  is  to  me  very  plain  that  no  recent  genius  can  work 
with  equal  effect  upon  mankind  as  Goethe,  for  no  intel- 
lectual young  man  can  read  without  finding  that  his  own 
compositions  are  immensely  modified  by  his  new  knowl- 
edge." 2  And  that  this  reading  did  modify  Emerson's  pro- 
ductions is  apparent  from  a  letter  to  Carlyle,  dated  Concord, 
Oct.  17,  1838 :3  'The  publication  of  my  address  to  the 
Divinity  College  ...  has  been  the  occasion  of  an  outcry 
in  all  our  leading  local  newspapers  against  my  '  infidelity. 
pantheism,  and  atheism.'  The  writers  warn  all  and  sundry 
against  me,  and  against  whatever  is  supposed  to  be  related 
to  my  connection  of  opinion,  etc. ;  against  Transcendental- 
ism, Goethe,  and  Carlyle."  4 

In  the  first  volume  of  the  Dial  appeared  Emerson's  lec- 
ture, Thoughts  on  Modern  Literature,5  in  which  he  limits 
his  discussion  principally  to  Goethe.  He  says :  "  This  new 
love  of  the  vast,  always  native  in  Germany,  was  imported 
into  France  by  De  Stael,  appeared  in  England  in  Coleridge, 
Wordsworth,  Byron,  Shelley,  Felicia  Hemans,  and  finds  a 

1  Sept.  3,  1836,  IV,  p.  94. 

2  Journal,  1837,  IV,  p.  218. 

3  I.  pp.  183-85. 

4  Cf.  Lectures  and  Biog.  Sketches,  ed.  of  1891,  pp.  453-63 :  Essay 
on  Carlyle. 

6  Delivered  in  the  winter  of  1839. 


America  327 

most  genial  climate  in  the  American  mind."  Its  great  Ger- 
man representative  is  Goethe,  the  poet,  naturalist,  and 
philosopher,  a  student  of  infinite  capacity.  "  He  learned  as 
readily  as  other  men  breathe."  Goethe  was  also  not  afraid 
to  live ;  he  was  brave,  knowing,  possessing  perfect  taste  and 
propriety,  free  from  narrowness,  a  great  observer,  sagacious, 
a  man  who  valued  truth  and  nature.  Notwithstanding  these 
gifts,  "  he  is  an  apology  for  the  analytic  spirit  of  the  age." 
Feeling  it  was  his  duty  to  study  and  judge  every  fact  in 
nature,  he  aimed  to  reconcile  its  purpose  with  his  own  being. 
What  he  could  reconcile  was  good ;  what  not,  false.  The 
secret  of  his  deep  reason  and  realism  was,  therefore,  the 
significance  he  attached  to  each  fact.  But  alas,  this  "  king 
of  all  scholars  "  was  afflicted  with  the  vicious  subjectiveness 
of  his  age,  with  that  ego  that  aims  to  astonish.  He  was  true 
to  his  intellectual  nature,  but  he  lacked  humanity  and  the 
moral  sentiment.  "  No  man  was  permitted  to  call  Goethe 
brother."  "  He  was  the  poet  of  the  Actual,  not  of  the  Ideal ; 
the  poet  of  limitation,  not  of  possibility ;  of  this  world,  and 
not  of  religion  and  hope ;  in  short,  if  I  may  say  so,  the  poet 
of  prose,  and  not  of  poetry."  With  him  poetry  was  "  ex- 
ternal, the  gilding  of  the  chain,  the  mitigation  of  his  fate." 
Because  of  this  lack  of  moral  perception,  he  failed  to  be  a 
creator  in  the  high  sense  of  the  word,  "  a  Redeemer  of  the 
human  mind,"  who  should  leave  the  world  better  than  he 
found  it.  Humanity  must,  therefore,  still  wait  for  its 
physician. 

"After  Carlyle  had  read  this  article  he  wrote  to  Emerson  ; l 

"  Even  what  you  say  of  Goethe  gratifies  me ;  it  is  one  of 

the  few  things  yet  spoken  of  him   from  personal   insight, 

the  sole  kind  of  things  that  should  be  spoken!     You  call 

'London,  Dec.  9,  1840:  I,  p.  314. 


328        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

him  actual,  not  ideal;  there  is  truth  in  that  too ;  and  yet  at 
bottom  is  not  the  whole  truth  rather  this :  The  actual  well 
seen  is  the  ideal?  The  actual,  what  really  is  and  exists;  the 
past,  the  present,  the  future,  no  less,  do  all  lie  there?  Ah 
yes !  one  day  you  will  find  that  this  sunny-looking  courtly 
Goethe  held  veiled  in  him  a  Prophetic  sorrow  deep  as 
Dante's, — all  the  nobler  to  me  and  to  you  that  he  could  so 
hold  it.  I  believe  this ;  no  man  can  see  as  he  sees,  that  has 
not  suffered  and  striven  as  man  seldom  did." 

In  1844  there  appeared  in  Emerson's  Journal 1  an  entry 
which  shows  his  appreciation  of  Goethe,  as  the  forerunner 
of  the  idealistic  movement  in  America.  It  was  occasioned 
by    a    clergyman's    criticism    of    Goethe's    religious    ideals. 

'  P pleased  the  people  of  Boston  by  railing  at  Goethe 

in  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration,  because  Goethe  was  not  a 
New  England  Calvinist.  If  our  lovers  of  greatness  and 
goodness  after  a  local  type  and  standard  could  expand  their 
scope  a  little,  they  would  see  that  a  worshiper  of  truth, 
and  a  most  subtle  perceiver  of  truth,  like  Goethe,  with  his 
impatience  of  all  falsehood  and  scorn  of  hypocrisy,  was  a  far 
more  useful  man  and  incomparably  more  helpful  ally  to  re- 
ligion than  ten  thousand  lukewarm  church  members  who  keep 
all  the  traditions  and  leave  a  tithe  of  their  estates  to  estab- 
lish them.  But  this  clergyman  should  have  known  that  the 
movement  which  in  America  created  these  Unitarian  dis- 
senters, of  which  he  is  one,  began  in  the  mind  of  the  great 
man  he  traduces ;  that  he  is  precisely  the  individual  in 
whom  the  new  ideas  appeared  and  opened  to  their  greatest 
extent  and  with  universal  application,  which  more  recently 
the  active  scholars  in  the  different  departments  of  science, 
of  state,  and  of  the  church  have  carried  in  parcels  and 
thimblefuls  to  their  petty  occasions."    And  in  like  manner, 

1  VI,  pp.  544-45- 


America  329 

he  tells  another  severe  critic  to  be  more  charitable.    In  his 
Poem  to  J.  W . 1  he  says  in  the  second  stanza : 

"  Set  not  thy  foot  on  graves ; 
Nor  seek  to  unwind  the  shroud 
Which  charitable  time 
And  Nature  have  allowed 
To  wrap  the  errors  of  a  sage  sublime."  2 

In  1847-48  Emerson  again  traveled  on  the  continent  and 
visited  Carlyle  at  Craigenputtock.  While  abroad  he  gave  a 
series  of  seven  lectures,  entitled  Representative  Men?  One 
of  them  deals  with  Goethe.  In  his  criticism  of  the  German, 
Emerson  still  retains  some  of  the  reserve  of  his  puritanic 
training.  Goethe  is  the  philosopher  of  a  multiplicity  of  facts 
and  "the  soul  of  his  century."  "What  distinguishes  him 
for  French  and  English  readers  is  a  property  which  he 
shares  with  his  nation, — a  habitual  reference  to  inner 
truth."  He  then  discusses  the  wisdom  of  Wilhelm  Meister, 
but  condemns  the  immorality  of  the  hero.  Goethe  is  to 
him  "  incapable  of  a  self-surrender  to  the  moral  sentiment  " ; 

1  Works,  IX,  pp.  31-32. 

2  Cf.  Journal,  1851,  VIII,  p.  249:  "Goethe  is  the  pivotal  man  of 
the  old  and  new  times  with  us.  He  shuts  up  the  old,  he  opens 
the  new.  No  matter  that  you  were  born  since  Goethe  died, — if 
you  have  not  read  Goethe,  or  the  Goetheans,  you  are  an  old  fogy, 
and  belong  with  the  antediluvians." 

Cf.  Journal,  1844,  VI,  p.  514:  "Goethe  with  his  extraordinary 
breadth  of  experience  and  culture,  the  security  with  which,  like  a 
great  continental  gentleman,  he  looks  impartially  over  all  litera- 
tures of  the  mountains,  the  provinces,  and  the  sea,  and  avails  him- 
self of  the  best  of  all,  contrasts  with  the  vigor  of  the  English 
and  the  superciliousness  and  flippancy  of  the  French.  His  perfect 
taste,  the  austere  felicity  of  his  style.  It  is  delightful  to  find  our 
own  thought  in  so  great  a  man." 

3  This  work  appeared  in  book  form  in  1850  and  was  translated 
into  French  in  1863.  During  the  decade  from  i860  to  1870  it  was 
of  potent  influence  in  France  in  creating  an  interest  in  Goethe. 


330        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

he  loves  truth  only  for  his  own  self-culture.  His  test  for 
all  men  is  selfish — What  can  you  teach  me?  "  He  is  the 
type  of  culture,  the  amateur  of  all  arts  and  sciences  and 
events ;  artistic,  but  not  artist ;  spiritual,  hut  not  spiritual- 
ist." Hence  there  is  a  higher  poetry  than  his,  a  poetry  that 
appeals  to  men  and  represents  absolute,  eternal  truth.  The 
profound  significance  of  morality,  as  he  conceived  it,  was 
constantly  before  Emerson's  vision.  In  1867  he  said  in 
his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  address  at  Cambridge,  The  Progress 
of  Culture:1  "The  foundation  of  culture,  as  of  character, 
is  at  last  the  moral  sentiment.  This  is  the  fountain  of 
power,  preserves  its  eternal  newness,  draws  its  own  rent 
out  of  every  novelty  of  science.  Science  corrects  the  old 
creeds.  .  .  .  Yet  it  does  not  surprise  the  moral  sentiment. 
That  was  older  and  awaited  expectant  these  larger  in- 
sights." 

Emerson  had  little  interest  or  appreciation  for  Faust — 
especially  for  the  First  Part.  In  1851,  he  wrote  in  his 
Journal: 2  "  I  looked  through  the  first  part  of  Faust  to-day 
and  found  it  a  little  too  modern  and  intelligible.  We  can 
make  such  a  fabric  at  several  mills,  though  a  little  inferior." 
(Referring  to  Bailey's  Festus  and  Browning's  Paracelsus.) 
In  his  essay  The  Man  of  Letters,3  he  said :  "  Our  pro- 
foundest  philosophy  (if  it  were  not  contradictory  in  terms) 
is  scepticism.  The  great  poem  of  the  age  is  the  disagreeable 
poem  of  Faust,  of  which  the  Festus  of  Bailey  and  the 
Paracelsus  of  Browning  are  English  variations."  Again 
in  Historic  Notes  of  Life  and  Letters  in  New  England* 
he  declared:  "The  age  of  arithmetic  and  of  criticism  has 

1  Letters  and  Social  Aims,  ed.  of  1883,  VIII,  pp.  216-17. 

2  VIII,  p.  245. 

8  Lectures  and  Biog.  Sketches,  X,  p.  234. 
4  Works,  X,  pp.  305-47. 


America  331 

set  in  .  .  .  the  age  of  analysis  and  detachment.  In  litera- 
ture the  effect  appeared  in  the  decided  tendency  of  criticism. 
The  most  remarkable  literary  work  of  the  age  has  for  its 
hero  and  subject  precisely  this  introversion!  I  mean  the 
poem  of  Faust."  The  second  part  fared  better  at  his  hands. 
"  In  Helena,  Faust  is  sincere  and  represents  actual,  culti- 
vated, strong-natured  man.  The  hook  would  be  farrago 
without  the  sincerity  of  Faust.  I  think  the  second  part  of 
Faust  the  grandest  enterprise  of  literature  that  has  been 
attempted  since  the  Paradise  Lost.  It  is  a  philosophy  of 
history  set  in  poetry."  l 

On  the  whole,  it  must  be  said  that  Emerson  never 
penetrated  into  the  secret  of  Goethe's  genius.  It  is 
interesting,  however,  to  see  how,  despite  his  reservations, 
Emerson  has  embodied  the  leading  ideas  of  Goethean  phi- 
losophy in  his  poems  and  essays.  Like  Goethe  he  was  an 
optimist.  He  believed  in  humanity  and  his  great  faith 
was  a  source  of  inspiration  to  thousands.  Truth  was  his 
ideal  and  for  this  ideal  he  was  willing  to  sacrifice  worldly 
advantages.  In  both  Goethe's  and  Emerson's  poetry  fate 
plays  an  important  role.  Endless  passages  might  be  cited 
from  Goethe ;  and  from  Emerson,  such  poems  as  Fate,  Horo- 
scope, Destiny,  and  The  World-Soul.  Just  as  Goethe's 
Prometheus  defies  the  gods  and  asserts  his  creative  power, 
so  Emerson  in  his  Sursum  corda  champions  the  power  of 
self-asserting  individuality.  Again  Emerson's  Earth  Song 
is  obviously  a  remininiscence  of  Goethe's  song  of  the 
Erdgeist  in  Faust. 

1  Journal,  1843,  VI,  p.  466. 


332         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Mrs.  Sarah  Helen  Power  Whitman  (1803-78) 

Mrs.  Whitman's  interest  in  Germany  was  due  to  Mme. 
de  Stael.1  In  a  review  of  Margaret  Fuller's  Eckermann  2 
she  wrote :  "  To  us  Germany  has  ever  been  a  bright  land  of 
promise  since  first  in  early  youth  we  listened  to  the  tidings 
which  Mme.  de  Stael  had  brought  us  of  a  people,  who,  in 
an  age  of  artificiality,  had  dared  to  follow  the  suggestions 
of  their  own  spirits,  and  to  show  us  nature,  as  she  had 
mirrored  herself  within  their  own  hearts.  And  now,  hav- 
ing possessed  ourselves  of  the  golden  key,  which  is  to  un- 
lock this  rich  world  of  thought,  we  cannot  but  glory  in  our 
new-found  treasures,  and  endeavor  to  win  others  to  be- 
come partakers  of  our  joy." 

After  her  marriage  in  1828  to  a  Boston  lawyer,  Mrs. 
Whitman  came  into  close  contact  with  Emerson  and  his 
circle.  Five  years  later,  upon  her  husband's  death,  she 
returned  to  her  early  home  in  Providence,  and  devoted 
her  leisure  time  to  writing  poems  and  reviews  for  maga- 
zines. Her  friendship  with  Emerson  remained  unbroken, 
however,  and  her  admiration  for  his  genius  never  wavered. 

In  1839,  after  Margaret  Fuller's  translation  of  Ecker- 
mann appeared,  Mrs.  Whitman  wrote  an  excellent  article 
on  Goethe  and  Faust.3  In  it  she  refers  to  the  services  of 
Dwight,  Margaret  Fuller,  and  Emerson  in  the  spread  of 
German  culture.  Concerning  Faust,  she  writes :  "  We 
know  of  nothing  that  approaches  this  work  in  exuberance 

1  Cf.  Myrtle  Reed:  Love  Affairs  of  Literary  Men;  Jas.  A.  Har- 
rison: The  Last  Letters  of  E.  A.  Poe  to  S.  A.  Whitman;  Poe's 
Complete  Works,  Centenary  edition,  with  biog.  and  introd.  by 
Nathan  H.  Dole,  10  vols.,  Akron,  Ohio.  X,  pp.  129-31 :  Poem,  To 
Helen;  S.  A.  Whitman,  Poems,  Boston,  1879,  PP-  71-98,  195-97. 

2  Bost.  Guar.  R.,  Ill,  pp.  20-57,  Jan.,  1840,  p.  57. 

3  Ibid.,  Ill,  pp.  20-57,  Jan.,  1840. 


America  333 

and  prodigality  of  genius,  in  the  lavish  expenditure  that  is 
exhibited  in  all  the  richest  materials  of  poetry;  neither  are 
the  closing  scenes  without  a  pure  spiritual  beauty." 

With  keen  intuition  Mrs.  Whitman  refutes  the  unjust 
criticism  in  which  Goethe  is  called  "  artist,"  a  term  con- 
fused with  "  artificiality."  Goethe  is  an  artist  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  for  he  is  a  student  of  the  beautiful.  But 
beauty  is  not  isolated ;  between  it  and  truth  and  goodness 
is  an  eternal  bond ;  from  it  are  evolved  the  good  and  true. 
The  same  idea  is  expressed  in  Schiller's  Die  Kiinstler. 

This  faith  in  truth  and  in  nature,  this  belief  in  the 
power  of  the  individual  to  discover  truth,  this  eager  desire 
to  free  minds  from  slavish  subjection  to  creeds  and  conven- 
tionalisms constituted  at  once  the  aim  and  the  heresy  of  the 
New  School  of  Philosophy.  It  teaches  that  the  objects  of 
education  are  not  achieved  by  the  exhibition  of  facts  or  the 
inculcation  of  theories,  but  by  developing  the  mind  for 
individual  and  independent  action.  To  the  Germans,  more 
or  less  directly,  says  Mrs.  Whitman,  much,  though  not  all 
of  this  belief,  is  to  be  attributed.  What  is  dimly  shadowed 
in  American  literature  has  grown  freely  and  luxuriantly 
in  the  German.  There  "  man  finds  himself."  In  its  deep, 
philosophic  spirit,  in  its  fearless  and  trusting  simplicity, 
in  the  holy  fervor  of  its  poets,  the  serene,  spiritual,  far- 
reaching  gaze  of  its  moralists  and  theologians  one  may  find 
much  that  cannot  be  furnished  by  the  rich  classical  literature 
of  England. 

Mrs.  Whitman  was  well  known  as  a  translator  of  French 
and  German  verse.  In  a  volume  of  Poems  are  included 
six  selections  from  the  German,1  which  seem  to  have  been 

1  Uhland :  The  Lost  Church  and  The  Dying  Heroes;  Burger: 
Leonora;  Gleim :  The  Cottage;  Goethe:  Faust,  II, — Scene  at  the 
Court  of  the  Emperor, — and  To  the  Clouds. 


334         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

translated  at  an   early  stage  of  her  literary  career,    from 
1839  to  1842. 


Mrs.  Elizabeth  Fries  Lummis  Ellet  (1818-77) 

Mrs.  Ellet  was  a  woman  of  broad  culture  and  of  un- 
wearied journalistic  and  literary  activity.  While  a  student 
at  the  Female  Seminary  in  Aurora,  New  York,  she  had  been 
an  ardent  admirer  of  French  and  Italian  literature,  and  had 
learned  a  little  German.  As  early  as  1833  she  had  con- 
tributed literary  essays,  stories,  and  poems,  original  or 
translated,  to  various  periodicals.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  after  her  marriage  in  1835  to  William  Henry  Ellet, 
professor  of  chemistry,  geology,  and  mineralogy  in  South 
Carolina  College,  that  Mrs.  Ellet's  activity  as  an  interpreter 
of  German  life  found  full  expression.  The  same  year  Dr. 
Francis  Lieber  was  appointed  professor  of  history  and 
political  economy  in  the  college  ( 1835-56).  Her  apprecia- 
tion of  the  varied  treasures  of  German  literature  was  un- 
doubtedly due  to  her  association  with  this  German  patriot 
and  exile.  From  this  time  on  she  contributed  to  various 
magazines  1  numerous  translations  and  adaptations  of  Ger- 

1  Southern  Literary  Journal,  Charleston,  S.  C. ;  Southern  Rose, 
Charleston;  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  Richmond,  Va. ;  Amer- 
ican Museum,  Baltimore;  Grahams  Magazine,  Philadelphia;  U.  S. 
Magazine  and  Democratic  Review,  Washington ;  American  Whig 
Review,  New  York;  Columbian  Lady's  and  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
New  York;  Godey's  Lady's  Book,  Philadelphia  and  New  York; 
N.  Y.  Review,  North  American  Review,  Boston;  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  Philadelphia ;  Hesperian,  Columbus,  Ohio ;  American 
Monthly  Mag.,  New  York;  Knickerbocker,  New  York;  American 
Ladies'  Mag.,  Boston ;  American  Quarterly  Review,  Philadelphia ; 
Southern  Quarterly  Review,  New  Orleans  and  Charleston ;  N.  Y. 
Mirror;  Sartain's  Union  Magazine,  Philadelphia;  Orion,  Penfield, 
Ga.,  and  Charleston. 


America  335 

man  poems  and  stories.  The  writers  from  whom  these  are 
taken  include  Schiller,  E.  T.  A.  Hoffmann,  Tieck,  and 
Hauff;  authors  associated  with  the  German  romantic 
movement. 

Of  even  greater  value  than  her  lyrics  or  translations 
were  her  critical  and  historical  essays.  To  this  work  Mrs. 
Ellet  brought  a  taste  cultivated  by  the  study  of  the  best 
works  of  art,  and  a  desire  to  diffuse  the  love  of  true  art 
and  culture  among  the  people. 

Her  essays  were  published  in  a  volume,  called  Characters 
of  Schiller.1  It  is  one  of  the  earliest  specimens  of  Ameri- 
can literary  criticism  on  a  larger  scale  and  as  such  called 
forth  much  praise.  The  Hesperian  2  even  went  so  far  as 
to  say:  "  We  regard  Mrs.  Ellet  as  among  the  first  feminine 
writers  of  our  country.  .  .  .  She  is,  we  understand,  an  ex- 
cellent German  scholar ;  her  mind  is  deeply  imbued  with  the 
literature  and  philosophy  of  the  land  of  Goethe ;  her  under- 
standing is  strong,  her  nature  poetic,  her  style  simple  and 
nervous ;  and  writh  these  advantages,  we  doubt  whether  any 
of  the  popular  writers  of  our  country  could  compete  with 
her  in  the  production  of  a  work  of  the  character  of  that 
which  she  is  giving  to  us."  3  In  this  .work  Mrs.  Ellet  did  not 
claim  originality,  but  the  desire  to  make  known  to  America 
Schiller's  genius.  She  says,  at  the  conclusion  of  her  work : 
"  The  author  of  the  foregoing  pages"  cannot  flatter  herself 
that  she  has  been  able  to  say  anything  new  to  the  admirers 
of  Schiller,  to  those  who  from  a  perusal  of  his  works  in 
the  original  have  been  enabled  to  appreciate  his  genius ; — 
but  from  the  want  of  competent  translations  of  all  his  plays, 

1  Boston,  1839;  2nd  ed.,  1841. 

2  III,  pp.  250-51,  Aug..  1839. 

3  Cf.  Godey,  XXV,  p.  248,  Nov.,   1842,  and  N.  A.  R.,  XLIX,  pp. 
257-58,  July,  1839- 


336        Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

most  of  them  are  unknown  to  many  readers  in  this  coun- 
try. If  the  reading  of  this  volume  should  have  inspired 
any  with  a  wish  for  a  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
works  of  the  great  German  poet,  the  object  of  its  presenta- 
tion to  the  public  will  have  been  accomplished."  1  As  this 
work  was  so  valuable  for  the  early  history  of  Schiller  in 
America,  I  shall  give  a  synopsis  of  its  contents.  The  book 
opens  with  a  short  essay  on  Schiller's  genius,  and  then 
discusses  each  work,  analyzing  its  contents,  criticising  the 
characters,  comparing  them  with  other  literary  creations, 
and  quoting  from  foreign  works,  especially  from  Mme.  de 
Stael's  De  l'Allemagne.  A  very  valuable  portion  of  its 
contents  is  the  number  of  original  poetic  translations  inter- 
spersed throughout  the  work. 

In  the  introductory  essay  Mrs.  Ellet  says  that  in  Schil- 
ler's writings  "  taste  "  is  paramount.  His  endeavor  to  make 
"  art  a  second  nature  "  gives  rise  to  many  of  his  defects 
and  some  of  his  beauties.  To  him  the  end  of  art  is  to  purify 
corruption,  to  ennoble  the  human  character,  and  to  pro- 
duce happiness.  The  artist  borrows  his  matter  from  the 
present,  but  his  form  arises  from  the  absolute  unchanging 
unity  of  his  own  being.  Inasmuch  as  art  survives  elevated 
nature,  it  surpasses  it  in  inspiration.  Like  Shakespeare, 
Schiller  has  vigor  and  loftiness  of  intellect,  bold  grasp  of 
thought,  the  feeling  o'f  the  noble  and  sublime,  a  rich  imagi- 
nation, and  lucidity  of  expression.  But  he  lacks  Shake- 
speare's versatility  "  to  converse  even  with  the  grass- 
hopper." Schiller's  mind  is  intuitively  "  romantic,"  accord- 
ing to  the  distinctions  of  classic  and  romantic  poetry,  as 
formulated  by  Mme.  de  Stael  and  also  by  Schlegel.  In  him 
was  incorporated  that  spirit  of  manliness  and  simplicity 
which  was  so  much  admired  by  Mme.  de  Stael.     A  most 

1  P.  296. 


America  337 

essential  requisite  for  dramatic  success  is  delineation  of 
character.  Shakespeare  possessed  this  quality  in  the  high- 
est degree,  and  his  characters  are  always  varied  and  in- 
dividual, not  mere  copies  of  one  mold.  Of  the  more  mod- 
ern dramatists,  Schiller  stands  first  in  character  portrayal. 
Even  in  his  first  drama,  Die  Rauber,  this  power  is  evident. 
His  next  drama,  Die  Verschworung  des  Fiesko  zu  Genua, 
remedies  somewhat  the  lurid  medium  of  its  predecessor. 
It  is  a  noble  play  in  the  development  of  incident  as  well 
as  in  broad,  vigorous,  and  impressive  character.  In  Fiesco 
is  seen  the  overpowering  influence  of  a  master  mind  and 
will  on  the  fickle  populace.  Schiller's  deep  penetration 
into  character,  his  vigorous  portraiture,  his  philosophical 
thought,  and  his  elevation  of  feeling  all  combine  to  make 
this  drama  an  extraordinary  production.1 

In  Kabale  und  Liebe  are  depicted  lofty  sentiments  and 
deep  emotion  in  humble  life.  The  object  of  this  piece  is 
to  show  the  conflict  of  simple  natural  feelings  with  the 
selfish  intriguing  spirit  of  worldly  wisdom.  The  lovers 
stand  alone  in  the  midst  of  cunning  and  deceit.  They 
persevere  in  their  attachment,  and  so  are  doomed  to  a 
fearful  fate.2 

With  Don  Carlos  Schiller  begins  a  new  era  in  poetical 
composition,  an  era  which  is  characterized  by  improved 
taste,  expanded  ideas,  and  an  enlarged  observation  of  life, 
due  to  his  better  acquaintance  with  Shakespeare  and  the 
more  modern  poets.  Mrs.  Ellet  then  discusses  the  his- 
torical Don  Carlos,  following  with  a  comparative  analysis 
of  Alfieri's  and  Schiller's  treatment  of  the  same  theme. 
She  quotes  Mine,  de  StaeTs  comments  on  the  ceremonious 

1  Prose  translation  of  the  scene  between  Fiesco  and  Verrina, 
act  v,  scene  xvi. 

2  Prose  translation  of  the  poison  scenes,  act  v,  scenes  vii  and  viii. 


338        Madame  de  Sta'el's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

gravity  of  the  Spanish  court,  and  gives  many  short  poetic 
translations  from  the  drama.  Referring  to  Mrs.  Hemans's 
assertion  that  "  not  even  Schiller's  mighty  spells  can  .  .  . 
win  the  most  '  unquestioning  '  spirit  to  suppose  that  such  a 
voice  of  truth  and  freedom  could  have  been  lifted  up  and 
endured,  in  the  presence  of  the  cold  stern  Philip  II. — that  he 
would  not,  even  for  a  moment,  have  listened  to  the  language 
thus  fearlessly  bursting  from  a  noble  heart,"  Mrs.  Ellet 
says  that  critics  often  forget  that  Schiller's  Philip  is  guided 
by  a  consistent  aim.  His  sole  resting-place  and  society  is 
within  himself.  If  we  consider  the  void  in  the  king's  heart, 
which  is  filled  by  a  character  like  the  Marquis,  the  scene  is 
probable.  After  the  murder  of  Posa  amidst  the  reproaches 
of  his  son,  he  stands  silent  and  awe-struck  in  the  presence 
of  superior  greatness.  A  despot,  he  involuntarily  does 
homage  to  freedom.  In  the  delineation  of  the  Marquis  Mrs. 
Ellet  follows  Schiller's  own  comments.  She  shows  that 
Posa  is  not  "  idealized  beyond  all  resemblance  to  life," 
but  that  his  motives  are  consistent  with  his  character.  The 
brightest  dream  of  liberty  often  has  its  birth  in  a  dungeon. 
Posa  is  a  hero  in  moral  as  well  as  in  physical  courage. 
His  great  aim  is  the  advancement  of  mankind,  to  which 
his  friendship  with  the  prince  is  secondary.  A  citizen  of 
the  world  and  a  friend  of  the  Netherlands,  by  his  too 
great  zeal  for  his  ideal  of  lofty  virtue  and  by  his  too  little 
regard  for  his  friend  Carlos,  he  unwittingly  becomes  the 
cause  of  the  destruction  of  both.  Carlos  perishes  because 
his  friend  would  save  him,  not  in  the  ordinary  way,  but  as 
a  god.  In  Don  Carlos  enthusiasm  is  at  first  in  conflict  with 
passion.  Only  when  he  has  overcome  his  internal  enemy 
is  he  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  destinies  of  nations.  With 
the  death  of  Posa  dies  the  passion  that  had  fettered  his 
nobler  self;  in  him  arises  a  new  spirit  of  strength  for  his 


America  339 

mighty  work,  which  is  so  untimely  arrested.  Among  Schil- 
ler's fine  creations  Elizabeth  is  the  fairest  and  loveliest.  She 
is  a  "  very  woman,"  rich  in  all  feminine  graces  and  excel- 
lencies, of  calm,  passive  heroism,  drawing  consolation  from 
duty.  Like  Louise  in  Kabale  und  Licbc,  she  is  shut  out 
from  external  resources  and  has  to  rely  on  her  inner  self. 
The  Princess  Eboli  is  a  much  more  common  character  in 
fiction  and  in  real  life.  She  is  "  of  the  earth,  earthy." 
In  her  temperament  there  is  an  Italian  fervor  which  pal- 
liates to  some  extent  the  external  deformity  of  her  crimes. 
Alba  reflects  his  master  Philip  in  his  stern  qualities,  while 
Domingo  is  the  wicked  monk  of  modern  fiction.  Although 
in  the  tragedy  there  is  somewhat  of  a  labored  air,  yet  the 
force  and  energy  of  separate  parts  and  the  expression  of 
liberal  thought  aid  the  exhibition  of  emotion  and  the  de- 
velopment of  events. 

Of  Wallenstein  Mrs.  Ellet  speaks  most  enthusiastically. 
Never  in  the  whole  range  of  the  drama  has  there  been  a 
grander  conception  or  a  subject  more  worthy  of  poetical 
powers.  Amidst  the  crowd  of  events  at  the  close  of  the 
Reformation  Schiller  seizes  the  most  striking  and  appro- 
priate. Illuminating  all  with  the  light  of  genius,  he  shows 
the  mysterious  recesses  of  the  human  soul.  Wallenstein  is 
more  of  a  romance  than  a  drama,  its  action  is  simple,  and 
dependent  on  the  character  of  Wallenstein  rather  than  on 
the  events  selected.  His  aim,  according  to  Schiller,  is  to 
make  the  emperor  independent  of  everyone  else  in  Ger- 
many but  himself.  His  ruling  passion  is  indomitable  pride 
and  ambition;  to  this  he  sacrifices  his  friends'  welfare,  his 
daughter's  love,  the  attachment  of  his  soldiers,  and  honor 
to  his  emperor.1     He  clothes  himself  in  mystery  and  is  suf- 

1  Quotations  from  Mme.  de  Stael  and  from.  Coleridge's  version 
of  Wallenstein. 


34Q         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

ficient  unto  himself ;  in  the  stars  he  places  his  trust,  and  this 
superstition  becomes  a  deep  religious  feeling.  In  contrast 
to  the  gloomy  bigotry  of  Philip  II.,  Wallenstein's  belief  is 
a  cheerful  faith.  Like  Louis  XI.  in  Scott's  novel,  Quentin 
Durward,  he  trusts  a  character  whom  he  has  seen  in  a  vision. 
As  a  general  he  is,  however,  too  irresolute ;  he  procrastinates 
until  events  compel  him  to  act.  He  dallies  with  the  thought 
of  treason  until  necessity  forces  the  deed  into  publicity, 
and  cuts  off  all  possibility  of  retreat.  Great  is  this  moral 
lesson :  woe  to  the  one  who  dallies  with  temptation  and 
thinks  to  vanquish  it  by  human  intellect.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  episode  of  Max  and  Thekla  is  a  "  bright  thread 
of  silver  tissue  run  through  a  dark  web  of  ambition,  selfish- 
ness, and  treachery."  Thekla's  love  is  frank,  calm,  noble, 
solemn,  and  confident.  She  yearns  for  an  ideal  world  of 
goodness  and  happiness.1  The  Countess  Terzky  voices  the 
pleadings  of  Wallenstein's  own  ambition.  Her  death  is 
worthy  of  her  life.  In  her  address  to  Octavio  she  shows 
the  proud  calmness  of  a  lofty,  though  perverted,  mind. 
Max's  character  is  the  "  very  poetry  of  war."  In  him 
burns  an  exalted  enthusiasm,  contrasted  with  the  narrow 
calculating  selfishness  of  his  father  and  the  querulous  sus- 
picions of  Questenberg.  Even  after  his  father  warns  him, 
his  generous  confidence  in  Wallenstein  remains  unchanged. 
He  is  an  "  impersonation  of  the  moral  energy  of  man 
wrestling  with  the  evil  powers ;  of  human  freedom  opposed 
to  changeless  necessity ;  the  warlike  angel  striving  against 
the  spirits  of  darkness."  Though  he  falls,  Truth  is  trium- 
phant, and  before  it  the  envious  hostile  powers  bow  in 
involuntary  homage.  Octavio  is  a  masterly  delineation. 
With  cold  premeditation,  he  lurks  behind  his  general,  whose 

1  Literal  translation  of  Thekla's  Song,  by  Mrs.  Ellet,  and  quota- 
tions from  Mme.  de  Stael. 


America  341 

fall  will  exalt  his  own  house.  "  True  with  the  tongue,  but 
false  with  the  heart,"  he  tries  to  excuse  himself  to  Max 
and  to  Buttler,  who  tells  him :  "  You  sowed  blood — and  yet 
stand  astonished  that  blood  is  come  up." 

Mrs.  Ellet  does  not  think  that  the  subject  of  Mary 
Stuart  is  favorable  to  dramatic  composition.  About  her 
actions  hovers  a  mystery  that  renders  her  guilt  uncertain. 
Unlike  Alfieri  and  Walter  Scott,  Schiller  has  distorted  his- 
tory. By  giving  Mary  a  firmness  and  seriousness  not  sup- 
ported by  fact,  he  makes  her  an  object  of  pity,  admiration, 
and  indignation. 

Of  the  many  representations  of  Joan  of  Arc,  Schiller's 
Jungfrau  von  Orleans  is  by  far  the  best,  says  Mrs.  Ellet. 
Shakespeare's  work  is  darkened  by  national  prejudice,  and 
Voltaire's  is  a  veritable  slander.  But  Schiller's  portrayal 
is  in  harmony  with  his  romantic  genius,  sublime  enthusiasm, 
great  energy,  noble  demeanor,  and  indomitable  will.  In  the 
conception  of  the  character  of  his  heroine,  Schiller  has 
embodied  the  spirit  of  a  romantic  and  superstitious  age — 
its  religious  faith,  extravagant  generosity,  and  boundless 
devotion  to  woman.  He  wrote  the  work  con  amore,  and 
the  whole  work  is  bathed  in  an  ethereal  atmosphere  of 
exquisite  beauty.  As  Posa  represents  the  rights  of  man,  so 
Joan  stands  for  the  rights  of  nations.  Youthful  innocence 
combats  with  evil.  The  invention  of  her  death  in  battle 
is  a  mistake,  according  to  Mrs.  Ellet,  for  her  historical 
death  at  the  stake  is  really  a  more  majestic  and  sublime 
catastrophe. 

In  the  Braut  von  Messina  Schiller  attempted  to  engraft 
the  beauties  of  ancient  tragedy  on  a  modern  subject.  The 
leading  idea  is  destiny.  The  chorus  in  this  drama  plays 
a  twofold  part.  It  represents  the  ideal  spectator  and  is 
also  an  efficient  actor  in  the  play.    In  defense  of  this  chorus, 


342         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

Mrs.  Ellet  quotes  in  translation  Schiller's  own  theories. 
But  for  her  citations  she  uses  George  Irvine's  version  of 
the  drama  with  criticisms  from  De  l'Allemagne. 

Schiller's  aim  of  "  art  becoming  a  second  nature "  is 
realized,  according  to  Mrs.  Ellet,  in  Wilhelm  Tell.  "  He 
alone  of  all  poets  who  have  handled  this  subject,  under- 
stood the  strength  of  true  genius." 

In  Tell  we  have  a  new  and  worthy  conception  of  the 
peasant  hero.  He  is  a  simple  peasant,  quiet  and  humble 
in  habits  and  manners,  but  terrible  when  oppression  arouses 
other  feelings  in  his  bosom.  He  slays  Gessler  to  revenge 
his  wrong  and  secure  safety  for  his  family. 

Of  all  Schiller's  creations,  Mrs.  Ellet  considers  Wallen- 
stein,  the  Jungfrau,  and  Wilhelm  Tell  as  the  noblest  pro- 
ductions of  his  genius.  "  For  comprehensive  views  and 
knowledge,  for  high  thought  and  vast  conception,  Wallen- 
stein  stands  preeminent ;  a  giant  monument  of  intellect. 
The  Maid  of  Orleans  is  the  more  ethereal,  bright,  and  glow- 
ing ;  the  more  full  of  the  exalted  spirit  of  romance ;  while 
in  truth  substantial,  appealing  to  the  heart,  in  its  portraiture 
of  nature  in  her  purest  and  most  universal  feelings,  Wilhelm 
Tell  excels  all  others.  The  mountain  hero  is  clothed,  too, 
in  the  same  candor  of  innocence  that  is  exhibited  so  brightly 
in  the  characters  of  the  intellectual  Marquis  of  Posa  and 
the  warrior  youth,  Max  Piccolomini."  x 

Because  of  her  ancestors  who  had  fought  in  the  Revolu- 
tion, Mrs.  Ellet  had  always  displayed  great  interest  in  the 
stories  of  that  period.  Accordingly  she  collected  from  liv- 
ing relatives  and  friends  material  about  the  women  who, 
by  their  bravery  and  cleverness,  had  helped  win  battles  at 
that  time. 

1  P.  296. 


Conclusion  343 


Conclusion 


The  number  of  American  writers  who  were  influenced 
directly  or  indirectly  by  De  I'Allemagne  is  almost  un- 
limited. Only  a  few  of  the  most  distinguished  may  be 
mentioned.  There  is  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  whose  entire 
poetic  work  is  permeated  by  the  German  spirit ;  Parke 
Godwin,  Bryant's  son-in-law,  translator  and  editor  of 
Goethe's  autobiography  and  Zschokke's  Tales;  Elizabeth 
Palmer  Peabody,  an  ardent  student  of  Froebel,  who  was 
responsible  for  the  establishment  of  the  first  public  kinder- 
garten in  America  (Boston,  1870)  ;  Bayard  Taylor,  trans- 
lator of  Faust  and  author  of  a  History  of  Germany;  Mary 
Elizabeth  Lee,  a  Southern  woman  who  contributed  a  great 
deal  to  the  diffusion  of  German  culture  in  the  Southern 
States.  She  was  best  known  for  her  translations  from 
the  German — especially  fiction. 

In  discussing  these  writers  and  their  works  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  show  how  they  ushered  in  a  new  era 
of  human  culture,  essentially  Germanic.  The  ancient 
French  civilization  and  tradition,  which  so  long  had  reigned 
supreme,  was  doomed  to  pass  and  to  surrender  its  place 
to  a  new  and  modern  spirit.  At  the  time  it  was  said,  "  Let 
France  be  brought  to  see  that  other  nations  have  anything 
either  great  or  wise  or  illustrious  which  they  have  not 
borrowed  from  herself,  and  half  her  confidence  is  gone. 
Let  the  rest  of  Europe  be  convinced  that  in  any  point  they 
equal  their  masters,  and  the  yoke  is  so  far  broken."  ]  This 
really  came  about.  As  formerly  in  her  glory  France's  self- 
confidence  had  wrought  success,  so  now  her  cultural  im- 
portance diminished  with  her  political  fall  and  with  the 
awakening  of  national  consciousness  in  Germany.  The 
1  London  Quarterly  Review,  X,  pp.  356-57,  Jan.,  1814. 


344         Madame  de  Stael's  "  De  l'Allemagne  " 

selfish  materialism  as  well  as  the  scepticism  of  the  eighteenth 
century  fell  before  the  mighty  force  of  the  youthful  ideal- 
istic spirit  of  Germany. 

That  the  leaders  of  French,  English,  and  American 
thought  gained  their  knowledge  of  German  culture  either 
directly  or  indirectly  through  Mme.  de  Stael's  De  l'Alle- 
magne is  apparent.  The  study  of  German  now  became 
universal  in  America — a  fact  which  Bancroft  more  or  less 
humorously  recognized  when  he  wrote : 1  "It  cannot  be 
denied  that  German  literature  has  come  to  exercise  a  great 
influence  upon  the  intellectual  character  of  Europe  and 
America.  We  may  lament  over  this  fact  or  rejoice  at  it, 
according  to  our  several  points  of  view ;  but  we  cannot 
disguise  from  ourselves  its  existence.  It  is  thrust  upon  our 
notice  at  every  corner  of  the  street ;  it  stares  us  in  the  face 
from  the  pages  of  every  literary  journal.  All  the  sciences 
own  the  power  of  that  influence ;  on  poetry  and  criticism 
it  acts  still  more  sensibly.  Theology  is  putting  on  such  a 
foreign  look  that  we  can  scarcely  recognize  our  old  acquaint- 
ance under  her  masquerading  Teutonic  garb." 

This  change  of  thought  was  largely  accomplished  through 
the  study  of  Goethe's  works,  especially  of  Faust,  which  had 
been  introduced  to  the  world  in  De  l'Allemagne.  The 
study  of  Goethe,  in  turn,  opened  the  way  to  an  appreciation 
of  the  great  contemporary  German  poets  and  thinkers,  such 
as  Herder,  Schiller,  Kant,  Fichte,  and  Schleiermacher,  and 
finally  led  to  the  gradual  assimilation  of  the  German  spirit 
and  genius.  The  chief  characteristic  of  this  spirit  was  its 
modernity.  It  is  the  spirit  which  has  become  the  gospel 
of  our  century,  the  apotheosis  of  activity  and  of  service  to 
humanity,  the  cheerful  performance  of  duty  and  the  re- 
nunciation of  selfish  desires  and,  above  all,  the  development 
1  North  American  Review,  XIX,  pp.  303-25. 


Conclusion  345 

of  personality.  In  the  exaltation  of  eternal  love  with 
human  activity  lies  the  keynote  of  our  modern  religious 
thought.  It  is  this  spirit  that  has  found  its  most  perfect 
expression  in  Faust,  the  noblest  flower  of  Teutonic  genius, 
and  it  is  this  spirit  which  is  Germany's  gift  to  mankind. 


INDEX 


Ackermann,    Richard,    182 
Adams,  David  P.,  143 
Adams,   Henry,   24 
Adams,  John  Q.,   15,   16,  18,  19, 

24,  288 
yEschylus,    147,    173 
Aikin,  Lucy,  194 
Albert,    Paul,    7 
Albin,  S.    (Mme.  Cornu),  134 
Alcott,  Amos  B.,  300,  310 
Alexander  I.  of  Russia,  72,  74, 

75 
Alexis,  Willibald,    168 
Alfieri,  Count  Vittorio,  121,  337, 

341. 
Alletz,  Edouard,  125 
Amalie,  Grand  Duchess  of  Saxe- 

Weimar,   51,   54,   57 
Amelia,  Duchess  of  Saxony,  209 
Ampere,  Jean   J.,    122 
Ancillon,  Frederic,  55,  60 
Andrieux,   Franqois,   121 
Angelo,  Michael,  319 
Anster,  John,    100-194 
Appell,  J.   W.,  6,  9,   126 
Arc,  Jeanne  d',  98 
Archenholz,  Johann  W.  von,  217, 

,  238,  239 
Ariosto,   Lodovico,  90 
Aristotle,    167,    314 
Amdt,  Ernst  M.,  75,  147 
Arnim,  Bettina  von,  58,  134,  312 
Ash,    Edward,    145 
Ashe,  Thomas.   156 
Auerbach,,  Berthold,  250,  285 
Augier,   Emile,    126 
Augustus,     Prince     of     Prussia, 

55.    71 
Austin,  John,   T94,  243 
Austin,  Mrs.  Sarah  Taylor,  146, 

194-205,    206,    243,   244,    245, 

297 


Bach,   Johann   S.,  307 

Bacon,    Lord    Francis,    104,    317 

Baer,  G.  de,  121 

Bagehot,   Walter,    150 

Bailey,  James  P.,  312,  330 

Baldensperger,      Ferdinand,      6, 

120,    126,    130,    137,    138 
Baltimore,     Lord     (Sir    George 

Calvert),  288 
Balzac,  Honore  de,   131 
Bancroft,   Aaron,  259 
Bancroft,   George,  21,    183,   258- 

268,   270,   289,   295.   344 
Barbauld,     Mrs.     Anna     Aikin, 

163,    194 
Barbier,    Auguste,    131 
Basil,  St.,    173 
Baumann,  Lina,  286 
Baumgarten,  Alexander  G.,  301 
Baur,   Ferdinand  C,  320 
Beck,  Karl,  252,  282 
Becker,   C.  F.,   174 
Beers,   Henry  A.,   162 
Beethoven,  Ludwig  van,  305,  312 
Bellermann,  279 

Benecke,  Friedrich,  12,   162,  288 
Berlepsch,   Fran   Emilie  von,  71 
Berlioz,  Hector,  131,  306 
Bertola,   Abbe,   146 
Bethmann,   Moritz,  58 
Bigelow,   Jacob,    143 
Bismarck,  Prince  Otto  von,  240 
Bjornson,    Bjornstjerne,    186 
Blackie,  John  S.,  250,  286 
Blaze   de   Bury,   Henri,    131.   132 
Blennerhassett,   Lady   Charlotte, 

6,  43,  47.  58.  65/69,  70,  75 
Bodmer,  Jakob,  29 
Boeckh,   P.   August,   261 
Boileau,  Daniel.   178 
Boileau-Despreaux,    Nicolas,    78 
Bonaparte,  Jerome,  23,  34 


347 


348 


Index 


Bonaparte,  Joseph,  55,  75 
Bonaparte,   Napoleon,  6,  36,  49, 

64,  71,  73,  74,  75,   n6,   120, 

145 
Bonneville,    Nicolas   de,    10,    122 
Bonstetten,  Charles  V.,  71 
Borel,   E.,   124 
Borne,  Ludwig,  32,  46,  186 
Bossuet,  Jacques  B.,  82 
Bottiger,  Karl  A.,  54,  57,  61,  62, 

63 
Bouhours,    Pere    Dominique,    3, 

44 
Boulard,  Henri,  126 
Bowdler,  Thomas,  244 
Bowring,  Edgar  A.,  250 
Bradford,  George,  297 
Brandl,  Alois,  8,  10,  14,  160,  177, 

181,  184 
Brandes,  George  M.,  6 
Braun,   Frederick  A.,  308 
Brentano,  Christian,  149 
Brinckmann,  Baron  Karl  G.  von, 

55 
Broglie,   Duchesse  Albertine   de 

Stael-Holstein   de,  251 
Brooks,  Charles  T.,  282-287,  290, 

296,  297,  301,  305 
Brosius,  Dr.,  24 
Brougham,  Lord  Henry  P.,  142, 

171 
Brown,    Charles    Brockden,    189 

Brown,  Dr.  Thomas,  172 

Browne,  Claude  S.,   214 

Browning,  Robert,  320 

Brownson,   Orestes   A.,  302 

Brun,   Friederike,  47,   71,   155 

Brunetiere,  Ferdinand,  138 

Brunswick,  Prince  of,  55 

Bryant,  William  C,  306,  343 

Buckminster,  Joseph  S.,  23,  143 

Burger,  Gottfried  A.,  32,  38,  88, 

90,    146,    157,    163,   187,  213, 

271,  282,  333 
Busch,   Wilhelm,   285 
Buttmann,    Philip    C,   256,   261, 

266 
Byron,  Lord   (George  Gordon), 


67,  75,  120,  135,  164,  165, 
168,  177-187,  188,  189,  190, 
212,  221,  272,  318,  326 

Cabot,  James  E.,  297 

Calderon  de  la  Barca,  Pedro,  68, 

188 
Calvert,    George,    153,    162,    260, 

286,  287-294 
Calvin,    Jean,    268 
Campbell,  James  D.,  155,  158 
Campbell,   Thomas,    11,  214 
Campe,  Joachim  H.,  45 
Carlowitz,     Baroness     de,     127, 

128,    134 
Carlyle,   Mrs.  Jane  Welsh,   194, 

196,  223,  231 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  14,  29,  147,  151, 
154,  158,  162,  171,  172,  174, 
177,   179,   184,  186,   195,   196, 

197,  202,    216-242,   243,   271, 

287,  297,  308,  310,  311,  313, 
316,  323,  324,  325,  326,  327, 
329 

Carove,  Friedrich  W.,  199 
Castelman,  Albert,  133 
Chadwick,  John  W,  294 
Chamisso,  Adalbert  von,  71,  283, 

297,  299 
Channing,  Edward  T.,  144 
Channing,  William  E.,  144,  207, 

276,  282,  290,  310,  313 
Channing,  William  H.,  301,  313 
Charlotte,  Princess  of  Wales,  91 
Chastellux,  Franqois  J.,  15 
Chastenay,    Mme.    de,   75 
Chateaubriand,  Franqois  R.,  72, 

119,    127,    139 
Chenedolle,  Charles  de,  32 
Chorley,     Henry     F.,    212,     213, 

214,  215,  216 
Chorley,  William  B.,  214 
Chopin,  Frederic,  211,  306 
Cicero,  Marcus  T.,  275,  276 
Clarke,  James  F.,   154,  162,  241, 

300,    301,   308,   312-318 
Clarkson,  Mrs.  Thomas,  160 
Claudius,    Matthias,   283 


Index 


349 


Cogswell,  Joseph  G.,  22,  263-266, 

268-270 
Coleridge,   Ernest   H.,   151,   156 
Coleridge,    Henry    N.,   279 
Coleridge,    Samuel    T.,    9,    145, 
147,    151-162,    163,    164,    167, 
173,   187,   188,   189,   192,   196, 
197,  211,  278,  279,  281,  295, 
300,   313,  318,  325,  326,  339 
Collier,  J.   Payne,  160 
Collin,  H.  J.  von,  56 
Condillac,  Etienne  de,   105 
Constant,    Benjamin,    28,    32-33, 
34,  46,  49,  50,  56,  68,  72,  127, 
149.  30i 
Constant,  Rosalie  de,  72 
Cooke,     George     W.,    287,    298, 

303 

Copinger,  Walter  A.,  142 
Corneille,   Pierre,  51 
Cornelius,  Peter  von,  248 
Cousin,  Victor,  130,  199,  200,  256, 

301 
Cranch,   Christopher   P.,  283 
Crebillon,    Prosper   J.,   51 
Cunningham,  Allan,   154 
Curran,  John    P.,    11 
Cuvier,  Baron  Georges,  28,  34,  72 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  303,  306 
Dannecker,  Johann  H.  von,  206 
Dante  Alighieri,  235,  317,  328 
Davies,  Charles,  255 
Davis,  Edward  Z.,  19 
Delacroix, _  Eugene,    131 
Delerot,  Emile,   134 
Denina,  Carlo  G.  M.,  239 
Denis,  Johann  N.,  147 
De  Quincey,   Thomas,   145,   162, 

168-171,    173,    174 
Descartes,  Rene,  106,  107 
Deschamps,  Emile,  124 
De  VVette,  Wilhelm  M.  L.,  277, 

300,   310,  314,  315,  318,  320 
Diderot,   Denis,   29,    105 
Ditson,  Oliver,  305,  306,  307 
Doering,  Heinrich,  271 
Dole,    Nathan   H.,   332 


Dorat,  Claude  J.,  5 
Dorner,  I.  A.,  277 
Doumic,  Rene,   117 
Dowden,  Edward,  188,  189 
Drummond,  Sir  George,  55 
Duff-Gordon,   Lady  Lucie  Aus- 
tin, 194,  205 
Dumas,  Alexandre  fils,   136 
Dumas,     Alexandre    pere,     122, 

123 
Diintzer,  Johann  H.  J.,  293 
Durand,  Walter  Y.,  169 
Duval,    Albert,    123 
Dwight,  John   S.,  283,  287,  300, 
301,   303-307,   332 

Ebeling,  Chr.  D.,  256 
Eckermann,  Johann  P.,  129,  130, 

I3i.   134,   138,   139,   140,  165, 

166,   167,    168,   183,   184,  185, 

186,    197,  207,  221,  223,  225, 

241,   292,   310,   332 
Eichhorn,  Johann  G.,  33 
Eliot,    Charles    W.,   266 
Eliot,  George,  249 
Ellet,      Mrs.      Elizabeth      Fries 

Lummis,   166,   334-342 
Ellet,  William  H.,  334 
Elze,  Karl,  186 
Emerson,  Ralph  W.,  12,  144,  162, 

188,  256,  257,  300,  302,  303, 

308,  310,  312,  313,  318,  323- 

331.  332 
Emerson,   William,  Jr.,  324 
Emerson,  William.  Sr.,  143 
Eppes,    Francis,   18 
Ernesti,  Johann  A.,  276,  301 
Escott,  T.  H.  S.,  246 
Ettlinger,  Josef,  32,  46 
Everett,    Alexander    H.,    20,   24, 

143,   270-273 
Everett,   Edward,   144,  251,  256- 

258,  259,  263,  267,  268,  269, 

299-  323 
Ewald,  Georg  H.  A.,  277 

Faguet.    Emile,    47 

Falk,  Johann  D.,  57,  196,  197 


350 


Index 


Faust,  Albert  B.,  19,  21,  255 
Fellenberg,  Philippe  E.  de,  266, 

269 
Felton,  Cornelius  C,  301,  311 
Fernandez  de  Moratin,  Leandro, 

121 
Ferrier,  James  F.,  161 
Feuerbach,  Ludwig  A.,  249,  319 
Fichte,   Johann   G.,   55,  60,    118, 

161,    173,  201,  258,  318,  344 
Filmore,  Lewis,  246 
Follen,  A.    L.,  288 
Follen,  Karl,  13,  21,  22,  252,  280, 

282,  283,  301 
Fortier,  Alcee,  48 
Foscolo,  Ugo,  186 
Fouque,  Friedrich  de  la  Motte, 

175,  191 
France,  Anatole,  137 
Francis  II.  of  Austria,  56 
Franklin,   Benjamin,    15,  20,  21, 

319 
Franz,  Robert,  307 
Franzos,   Karl    E,   62 
Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia, 

3,  4,  18,  172,  238,  239 
Freiligrath,   Hermann   F.,  283 
Friedel,  A.  Christian,  10,  122 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  III.  of  Prus- 
sia, 55,  256 
Fries,   Jakob   F.,    281 
Froebel,  Friedrich,  343 
Frothingham,  Nathan  L.,  283 
Frothingham,   Octavius  B.,  300, 

301,  303,  3i8,  319 
Froude,    James     Anthony,     195, 

196,  218,  235 
Fuller,    Sarah    Margaret    (Mar- 
chesa    d'Ossoli),     144,     162, 
297,   300,   301,   302,   308-312, 
313,  332 
Ftihrich,    Joseph,    248,    249 
Furness,  William  H.,  285 
Furstenwarther,  M.  von,   17,   18 

Gautier,  Paul,  47 
Gautier,  Theophile  fils,  126,  127, 
130 


Geibel,    Immanuel,  317 
Gellert,   Christian  F.,  5,  283 
Genlis,    Comtesse   Stephanie   de, 

55 
George  III.  of  England,  34 
George   IV.  of    England,    184 
Gerando,    Jean    M.    de,    31,    48, 

58 
Gerard      de      Nerval      (Gerard 

Labrunie),   129,   130,  131 
Gessner,  Solomon,  5,  29,  147,  178 
Gibbon,  Edward,  27,  29 
Gillies,  John,  172 
Gillies,  Robert  P.,  143,  162,  172- 

177,  179 

Gladstone,  William,  204,  245 

Gleim,  Johann   W.  L.,   147,  333 

Gluck,   C.  W.  von,  307 

Gochhausen,  Frl.  von,  54,  57 

Godwin,  Parke,  306,  343 

Goethe,  Johartn  W.  von,  3,  4,  6, 

8,  9,   10,   13,   14,  27,  29,  30, 

3i,  34.  35.  36,  38,  41,  44,  45, 

49,    50,    51,    53,    54,    55,    56, 

58,  61,  62,  64,  65,  70,  83,  86, 

88,  89,  90,  92,  97,   115,   n6, 

117,    120-140,    141,    143,    146, 

147,   148,  149,   150,   156,  157, 

158,   159,   164,   165,   167,   168, 

169,   170,   175,  177,   179,   181, 

182,  184,   185,  186,   187,   188, 

189,   190,   191,   195,   196,  197, 

199,  201,  203,  206,  207,  208, 

212,  213,  214,  215,  216,  217, 

218,  219,  220,  221,  222,  223, 

224,  225,  226,  227,  228,  229, 

230,  231,  232,  233,  234,  236, 

237,  240,  241,  242,  243,  245, 

247,  249,  251,  257,  259,  260, 

261,  269,  271,  282,  286,  287, 

289,  290,  291,  292,  293,  294, 

295,  296,  299,  304,  305,  308, 

309,  311,  3*3,  314,  3i6,  317, 

318,  319,  323,  324,  325,  326, 

327,  328,  329,  330,  331,  332, 

333,  335,  343,  344,  345 
Goethe,  Frau  Katharine  Textor, 
58 


Index 


351 


Goethe,    Frau    Ottilie    von,    196, 

206,  289 
Gottsched,    Johann    C,   3 
Gounod,  Charles,  131 
Gower,    Lord    Francis    L.,    215, 

222,   250 
Greeley,    Horace,   306 
Greene,  J.  B.,  233 
Grillparzer,  Franz,  175,  181,  212, 

214 
Grimm,  Baron  Friedrich  M.  de, 

5,  29,  30 
Griswold,    Rufus,  280,   281 
Grote,   Mrs.   George,  204,  246 
Grotthus,  Frau  Sara  von,  116 
Grtin,    Anastasius    (A.    A.    von 

Auersperg),  283 
Giinderode,  Karoline  von,  312 
Gurney,  Archer,   186,  194 

Hach,   305 

Hagedorn,     Friedrich     von,     5, 

147 
Hale,  Edward  E.,  162,  298,  313, 

314.    3i8 
Hallam,  Henry,  278 
Haller,  Albrecht  von,  5,   147 
Hammer-Purgstall,  Joseph  von, 

56 
Handel,  G.  F.,  307 
Harring,  Harro,  271 
Harrison,  James  A.,  332 
Hartley,  David,  313 
Hauff,  Wilhelm,   168,  335 
Hawthorne,  Mrs.  Nathaniel,  309 
Haydn,    Franz    J.,    307 
Hayward,     Abraham,     148,     191, 

206,   207,    210,    215,    242-246, 

286 
Hazlitt,  William,  Jr.,   250 
Hedge,   Frederick    H.,    144,    165, 

286,  294-299,  300,  313,  323 
Hedge,   Levi,    295 
Heeren,  Ludwig,  266,  267,  278 
Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,   135,   136,  257, 

261,  320,   324 
Heine,   Heinrich,  60,  63,  64,  65, 

186,  249,  299,  307,  317 


Heller,  A.,  196 
Helmholtz,  Anna,   161 
Helvetius,   Claude  A.,    105 
Hemans,       Mrs.       Felicia       D. 

Browne,    188,    194,    211-216, 

326,  338 
Henry,   Patrick,  272 
Heraud,  John  A.,  249 
Herder,    Johann    F.,    4,    31,    38, 

50,  90,  98,  in,  136,  146,  147, 

169,  213,  279,  280,  292,  301, 

3io,   344 
Herkimer,  Nicholas,  18 
Herodotus,   317 
Hertz,  H.,  249 
Herwegh,  Georg,  283 
Heyne,  C.  G.,  33,  225,  257 
Higginson,  Thomas  W.,  255,  310, 

311 

Hinsdale,    Burke,    15,    19,   21 
Hobbes,  Thomas,   104 
Hoffmann,    E.    T.    A.,    139,   224, 

299.  335 
Hogg,  James,  172 
Holbach,  Baron  Paul  d',  105 
Holcroft,  Thomas,  147 
Holty,  Ludwig  H.  C,  282 
Homer,   173,  317 
Houwald,  C.  Ernst  von,  175 
Howe,  M.  A.  De  Wolfe,  259 
Howitt,  Mrs.  Mary,  212,  250 
Howitt,   William,   250 
Hughes,   Mrs.  Browne,  213 
Hugo,  Victor,  118,  122,  123,  127, 

140,    141,     186 
Humboldt,   Wilhelm  von,  6,  46, 

52,   201,   258 
Hume,    David,    104 
Hunt,   Leigh,    154,   235 
Huntington,    Frederick    D.,    297 

Ibsen,  Henrik,  186 
Iffland,    August   W.,    13 
Ilgen,  David,  29s 
Ingemann,  Bernhard   S.,   175 
Irvine,  George,  342 
Trving,   Edward,   231 
Irving,  Washington,  22 


352 


Index 


Jackson,    Sir    George,    55 

Jacob,  Christian  F.  W.,  256,  262, 
267 

Jacobi,  Friedrich  H.,  32,  56, 
3i8 

Jacobi,  Johann   G.,   147 

Jaell,  Albert,  307 

Jahn,  F.  L.,  277 

Jameson,  Mrs.  Anna  B.  Mur- 
phy, 164,  194,  205-211,  242, 
312 

Jardine,   Robert,   217 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  15,  16,  18, 
19,   20 

Jeffrey,  Lord  Francis,  142,  172, 
180,   235 

Jordan,   Cnmille,  31,  48 

Jouffroy,  Theodore,  301 

Jung-Stilling,   Heinrich,  324 

Kalb,    Baron   Johann   de,    18 
Kant,  Immanuel,  59,  60,  107,  108, 

118,   130,   136,   152,   161,   169, 

173,   176,   177.  230,  241,  278, 

279,  281,  297,  300,  344 
Karl    August,    Grand    Duke    of 

Saxe-Weimar,  50,  51,  52,  57 
Kastner,  A.  G,  33 
Keil,  Karl  F.,  277 
Kindt,   Hermann,   191 
Kirkland,  John  T.,  143,  261,  262, 

263. 
Kleist,  Ewald  von,  147 
Klenze,  Leo  von,  206 
Klopstock,    Friedrich    G.,    4,    29, 

31,  32,  39,  87,   117,   146,  147, 

152,   206,  241,  282,  312,  318 
Knebel,  Henriette  von,   62 
Knebel,  Ludwig  von,  51,  54,  57, 

62,  63 
Kopisch,  August,  283 
Korner,    C.    G,    52,   214 
Korner,  Gustav,  19 
Korner,  Karl  Theodor,  147,  175, 

191,  213,  214,  282,  312 
Kortum,  Karl  A.,  285 
Kotzebue,    August    von,    13,    55, 

147,   217,   241 


Kriidener,  Barbara  Juliane  von, 

127 
Kurland,  Duchess  of,  55 

Lacretelle,  Jean  de,  71,  98 
Ladvocat,   Jean    B.,    121,    129 
Lafayette,  Marquis  M.  J.  de,  15, 

251,  252 
La    Forest,    55 

Lamarck,  Comte  Jean  B.  de,  56 
Lamartine,  Alphonse  de,  76,  126, 

127,  131,  186 
Lamb,  Charles,   154,   156 
Lamennais,   Felicite  de,   133 
La  Mettrie,  Julien  O.  de,  104 
Langkavel,    Martha,    137 
Lanson,    Gustave,  65 
Laprade,  Victor,  126 
La  Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,  Due 

Frangois  A.  F.  de,  15 
Larousse,    Pierre,   69 
Latouche,  Henri   de 
Lavater,   Louis    (Louis    Spach), 

128 
Lavoisier,  Antoine  L.,  3 
Lee,    Mrs.    Eliza    Buckminster, 

284 
Lee,  Harriet,  179 
Lee,  Mary  Elizabeth,  343 
Lee,  Samuel,  277 
Legrelle,  A.,  124,   134 
Leibniz,    Gottfried   W.,   29,    103, 

106,    107,    108,   195,  317,  324 
Lenau,    Nikolaus,   283 
Lenormant,    Mme.    Amelie,    51, 

65 
Lenz,  Jakob  M.  R.,  30 
Leopardi,    Conte    Giacomo,    186 
Le  Rey,  Frederic,  126 
Lerminier,  Jean   L.,   132,   133 
Lessing,  Gotthold  E.,  4,  5,  8,  29, 

32,    146,    147,    152,    159,    169, 

175,   188,  201,  308,  317 
Lewes,  George   Henry,   197,  249 
Lewis,  Sir  George  C,  203,  243 
Lewis,  Matthew  G,  9,  145,  146, 

163,  179,   187 
Levy,  Frau  Sarah,  55 


Index 


353 


Lezay-Marnesia,    Comte    Adrien 

de,  32 
Lieber,  Franz,  334 
Ligne,  Prince  Charles  J.  de,  56 
Linnaeus   (Charles  de  Linne),  3 
Liszt,  Franz,  306 
Livingston,  Robert  R.,  15 
Lloyd,  Henry,  239 
Locke,  John,   104,    106,  280,  313 
Lockhart,  John  G.,  165,  167,  168 
Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  283,  312, 

343 
Louis   XIV.    of   France,   26,   92, 

106,  116 

Louise,  Grand  Duchess  of  Saxe- 

Weimar,  50,   51,   52,  55,  57, 

64,  208 
Louise,    Queen  of    Prussia,   225 
Louis     Ferdinand,      Princj     of 

Prussia,  55 
Lowell,  James  R.,  15,  21 
Lowther,   Lord,  216 
Lullin    de    Chatcauvieux,    Jacob 

F.,  71 
Luther,    Martin,    158,    195,    226, 

268,   297 
Lytton,  Lord  (Edward  Bulwer), 

250 

Macaulay,    Thomas    B.,   8,    200, 

243 
Mackall,  Leonard,  19 
Mackenzie,  Henry,  10,  145,  163, 

172 
Mackintosh,    Sir  James,   8,    141, 

208,   324 
Maeterlinck,    Maurice,    138 
Maillard,  Albert,  123 
Malebranche,    Nicolas    de,     106, 

107,  136 
Malherbe,  Franqois  de,  78 
Mancini,  Mile.  Marie  de,  116 
Mann,    Mrs.    Horace,  309 
Manzoni,  Alessandro,  186 
Marlowe,  Christopher,   182 
Marmier,  Xavier,  126 
Marmontel,  Jean  F.,  30 
Marot,  Clement,   138 


Marsh,  James,  162,  278-281,  313 

Martin,    Sir  Theodore,  249,  286 
Martineau,  James,  301 

Matthisson,  Friedrich   von,  147, 

155,    305 
Maturin,  Charlies  R.,   159 
McMaster,  John  B.,   16 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin,      Prince 

of,  72 
Medwin,  Capt.  Thomas,  178,  181, 

.183 
Meidinger,  24 
Meister,    Henri,   29,   30,   36,   44, 

.45,  58,  98 
Meister,  Leonard,  36 
Meissner,  Fritz,   120 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,      Felix, 

307 

Menzel,  Wolfgang,  311,  323 
Meyer,    Heinrich,    65 
Meyer,   J.    W.,    36 
Mezieres,  Alfred,   122,  137 
Michaelis,  Caroline,  56 
Michaelis,    Johann    D.,    56,    152, 

301 
Michelet,  Jules,   133 
Middleton,  Charles,   187 
Millais,  Sir  John  C,  248 
Mills,  James  S.,  151 
Milton,  John,   173,  317 
Mirabeau,    Marquis    Victor    de, 

.56 
Moir,  George,  250 
Moliere    (J.    B.    Poquelin),    138 
Monroe,  James,  15 
Monteau,  Gaston  de,  128 
Montegut,   Emile,    127,    135,    136 
Montesquieu,  Baron  Charles  de, 

30 
Monti,  Vincenzo,  71 
Montmorency,    Baron    Mathieu 

F.,   15,  74 
Moore,  Thomas,   181,   190 
Morellet,  Abbe  Andre,  30 
Morley,  Henry,  159 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  15 
Moses,  Henry,  218 
Mounier,  Jean  J.,  31 


354 


Index 


Mozart,  Wolfgang  A.,  211,  307 
Muller,    Johannes    von,    55,    71, 

196,  272,  291 
Miillner,   Adolf,    175,    182 
Murray,    John,    Jr.,    181 
Murray,  John,   Sr.,  76,   156,   174, 

178,    180,  203,  245 
Musseus,  J.  K.  A.,  224 
Musset,  Alfred  de,  120,  123,  127, 

131.  186 

Necker,   Jacques,   26,  28 

Necker,  Karl  F.,  26 

Necker,  Louis,  26 

Necker,  Mme.  Susanne  Curchod, 

27,  28,  30 
Necker  de    Saussure,   Mme.  Al- 

bertine  A.,  26,  56,  71 
Neufchateau,  Frangois  de,  32 
Nicolai,  C.  F.,  55,   147,  283 
Niebuhr,  B.   G.,  65,  201,  211 
Nodier,  Charles,  127,  131 
Nolde,    Elisabeth    de,    76 
North,   Christopher    (John  Wil- 
son), 172,   173,  249 
Norton,  Andrews,  143,  254,  260, 

300,  301,  316 
Norton,    Charles  E.,   217,   235 
Novalis  (Friedrich  von  Harden- 
berg),    201,    214,    225,    236, 
242,  309,  314 

Oehlenschlager,  Adam,  68,  69, 
71,  175,  214,  249 

Oken,   Laurent,   257 

Oliphant,  Mrs.  Margaret  Wil- 
son, 245 

Opie,  Mrs.  Amelia,   194 

Orange,  Prince  of,  55 

Osburne,   Bernal,   244 

Osgood,    Samuel,    301 

Ossian,      (James     Macpherson), 

139 
Oswald,   Eugene,    19 
Otway,  Thomas,   178 
Oulibicheff,   A.,  306 
Overbeck,    Friedrich,   248 


Parker,  Theodore,  162,  300,  318- 

323 

Parry,   Ellwood,   19 

Pascal,  Blaise,  226 

Peabody,  Andrew  P.,  22,  296 

Peabody,  Elizabeth  P.,  300,  309, 

343 
Peabody,  Nathaniel,  309 
Peacock,  Thomas  Love,  189 
Pecontal,  Jean,   131 
Pellissier,  Georges,  119 
Perkins,  Charles  T.,  307 
Perthes,  Friedrich  C,  205 
Pestalozzi,   J.   H.,   266,   269,   301 
Petrarch,  Francesco,  87 
Pezay,  Marquis  de   (Alex.  F.  J. 

Masson),  30 
Phillips,  Wendell,  320 
Pictet  de  Sergy,  Adolphe  P.  J., 

Pinckney,   Charles,    15 
Pindar,  87 
Plaidy,  Louis,  307 
Platen-Hallermunde,    Graf    Au- 
gust von,  283 
Plato,    106,    147,    173,    188,    197, 

314,  317 

Plutarch,  238 

Poe,  Edgar  A.,  311,  332 

Pope,  Alexander,  78 

Preston,  William,  13 

Preuss,  Johann  D.,  238,  239 

Piickler-Muskau,     Prince     Her- 
mann von,  8,  195,  196 

Pythagoras,   106 

Quesnay   de   Beaurepaire,  Jules, 

15 
Quincy,  Josiah,  15 
Quinet,  Edgar,   130 

Racine,  Jean   B.,  79,  87,  90,   138 
Radcliffe,  Mrs.  Anne  Ward,  178 
Radziwill,   Prince,   55 
Randall,  Henry,   15,   16,   18 
Ranke,    Ludwig    von,    200,    203, 

204 
Raupach,  Ernst  von,  175 


Index 


355 


Recamier,     Mme.    Jeanne    Ber- 
nard,  71,  74 
Reed,  Myrtle,  332 
Reeve,  Henry,   196 
Reeve,  Mrs.  Henry,  194 
Regnard,  Jean   F.,   78 
Reid,  Thomas,   136,  280 
Reinhard,  C.  F.  von,  65 
Remusat,    Charles    de,    121,    135 
Renan,  Ernest,  126,  134,  135,  136, 

139, 

Renan,  Henriette,  136 

Retzer,  Freiherr  J.  von,  69 

Retzow,  239 

Retzsch,  Moritz,  210,  218,  246 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  8 

Richardson,  C.  F.,  214 

Richardson,  Samuel,  30 

Richelet,  H.,   134 

Richelieu,   Cardinal,  98 

Richter,  Jean  Paul,  46,  51,  89, 
115,  161,  169,  170,  201,  213, 
2t8,  224,  234,  235,  236,  242, 
284,  285,  287,  297,  308,  309. 
312 

Rilliet,  Mme.  Huber,  71 

Ripley,  George,  144,  282,  290, 
292,    299-303,   306,   310,   311, 

314,  3i8 
Ripley,  Mrs.  Sophia,  303 
Ritter,  Karl,  71 
Rivery,  Boulenger  de,  5 
Robertson,  Eric,  212 
Robin,  Eugene,   131 
Robinson,  Edward,  276 
Robinson,    Henry   Crabb,   9,    12, 

13,  53,  61,  70,  76,   146,  148- 

151,  155,  156,   160,   171,   179, 

184,   190,   196,  206,  218,  238, 

288 
Roediger,  Emil,  277 
Ronsard,  Pierre  de,  78 
Ross,  Mrs.  Janet,  148,  195,  199, 

201,    203,    204 
Rossel,  Virgile,  6,  120 
Rossetti,     Dante     Gabriel,     246- 

249 
Rossetti,  William  M.,  212 


Rousseau,    Jean    J.,    30,    32,    38, 

46,   51,  79.  82,    105,    119 
Rubens,  Peter  P.,  288,  319 
Riickert,  Friedrich,  282,  283,  285 
Russell,  Lord  John,  191 

Sabatier,   Frangois,   137 
Sabran,  Comte  Elzear  de,  68 
Sachs,    Hans,    138,    157 
Sainte-Aulaire,  Comte  Louis  de, 

121,   129,   130 
Sainte-Beuve,  Charles  A.  de,  32 

125,   133 
Saint-Pierre,  Bernardin  de,  119 
Saint-Hilaire,  Emile  M.,  139 
Saint-Priest,  Comte  Frangois  de, 

74 

Salvayre,   M.  Gaston,   123 

Sand,  George,  126,  127,  130 

Sassen,  S.  E.  Wilhelmine  von, 
191 

Savage,  James,  143 

Savary,  A.  J.  M.  (Due  de 
Rovigo),  73,  n6,   117 

Savigny,  Friedrich  K.  von,  243 

Schefer,   Leopold,  285 

Scheffer,  Ary,  127,  132 

Schelling,  F.  W.  J.  von,  31,  56, 
58,  61,  130,  135,  161,  173, 
249,   257,   297,   300,   320 

Scherer,  Edmond,  136,  235 

Schiller,  Frau  Charlotte  von, 
52,  57 

Schiller,  Friedrich  von,  4,  13,  14, 
22,  31,  34,  36,  38,  39,  45,  50, 
5i,  52,  53,  57,  61,  62,  64,  65, 
67,  83,  88,  89,  90,  91,  92,  95, 
96,  98,  101,  117,  121,  136,  146, 
147,  148,  151,  152,  155,  159, 
161,  166,  169,  170,  17^,  178, 
179,  182,  183,  186,  188,  189, 
201,  212,  213,  216,  218,  222, 
226,  227,  230,  236,  238,  240, 
241,  242,  249,  250,  259,  271, 
282,  289,  291,  297,  298,  299, 
304,  305,  308,  2>\2,  314,  317, 
3i8,  324,  333-  335-342,  344 

Schlegel,  August  von,  42,  47,  55, 


356 


Index 


56,  60,  63,  64,  65,  66,  67,  68, 

69,  70,  74,  75,  83,  146,  160, 

161,   165,  206,  250,  278,  295, 

324,  336 
Schlegel,    Friedrich,    55,    59,    64, 

65,  69,    146 
Schleiermacher,    F.    D.    E.,    258, 

277,  297,  300,  301,  344 
Schlenkert,  175 
Schleussner,  274 
Schlozer,  August  L.  von,  33 
Schmidt,  Erich,  31 
Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld,  Julius, 

149,  248 
Schopenhauer,  Arthur,  232 
Schopenhauer,     Frau     Johanna, 

206 
Schroder,    Richard,   219 
Schubart,  C.  F.   D.,   188 
Schubert,  Franz,  307 
Schulze,  Ernst  K.  F.,  251 
Schumann,   Robert,   307 
Scott,    Sir    Walter,   9,    143,    145, 

146,    147,    154,    162-168,    172, 

174,   187,   196,  240,  273,  318, 

340,    341 
Selden,  Camille,   128 
Semler,  Johann   S.,    152,   301 
Senancour,  Etienne  de,  127 
Seume,  J.  G.,   149 
Shackford,    C.   C,   320 
Shakespeare,     William,     67,     68, 

85,   88,    121,    129,    152,    159, 

173,   178,   184,  209,  288,  319, 

336,    337,   340 
Shaw,  William   S.,   24,   143 
Shedd,  William   G.   T.,   152 
Shelley,  Percy  B.,  147,  182,  187- 

190,    191,   212,   312,   326 
Sigourney,  Mrs.  Lydia  H.,  213 
Sismondi,  Jean  C.  de,  56,  58 
Smith,  Adam,  3 
Smith,    J.    P.,    277 
Smith,  Lindsay,  303 
Smith,   Sydney,  41,   142 
Soane,  George,  250 
Sorel,   Albert,   50,   119 
Soret,  134,  195 


Sotheby,    William,    8,    19,    146, 

154 
Soumet,  Albert,  131 
Southey,  Robert,  9,  146,  151,  154, 

194 

Spalding,    55 

Sparks,  Jared,   144 

Spinoza,  Baruch,  135,  188,  249, 
300,  318 

Spittler,  33 

Staaff,  A.  R.,  7 

Stael-Holstein,  Baronne  Anne 
Louise  Germaine  Necker  de, 
3,  6,  7,  9,  13,  14,  23,  24,  26- 
112,  115,  116,  117,  118,  123, 
124,  127,  128,  129,  139,  141, 
145,  146,  149,  169,  177,  178, 
187,  190,  194.  196,  197,  199, 
204,  205,  206,  207,  208,  209, 
211,  212,  217,  241,  242,  244, 
251,  271,  272,  278,  308,  324, 
325,  326,  332,  336,  337,  339, 
340,  344 

Stael-Holstein,  Baron  Auguste 
de,  74,   115,   121,  251 

Stael-Holstein,  Baron  Eric  Mag- 
nus de,  31 

Stapfer,  Albert,  121,  122,  128, 
129 

Stapfer,  Paul,  126 

Stapfer,  Philippe  A.,  32 

Stein,  Erau  Charlotte  von,  57, 
291,  293 

Stein,    Freiherr    H.    F.    C.    von, 

75 
Stendhal  (Henri  Beyle),  67 
Stephen,   Leslie,   203 
Stephenson,  George,  319 
Sterling,  John,    162,   195 
Stern,    Daniel     (Comtesse    d'A- 

goult),  134 
Sterne,  Laurence,  9 
Steuben,     Baron     Friedrich    W. 

von,  18 
Stevens,  Abel,  27,  55,  58,  59,  69, 

72,    118 
Stewart,  Dugald,  172,  280 
Stoddart,  Sir  John,  164 


Index 


357 


Stolberg,    Count   Christian   von, 

155 
Strauss,  David  F.,  135,  249,  320 
Streuli,  Wilhelm,  235 
Stuart,   Moses,  23,   162,  273-277, 

278 
Suard,  Jean,  30 
Sue,   Eugene,   131 
Supfle,   Theodor,    5,   6,    10,    120, 

122,  125, 
Swanwick,  Anna,  247,  250 
Swedenborg,    Immanuel,   317 

Tacitus,  64 

Taillandier,    Saint-Rene,    131 

Taine,  Hippolyte  A.,  7,  124,  136, 

139,  MO 
Talleyrand-Perigord,    Prince    C. 

M.    de,    15,    133 
Tasso,  Torquato,  215 
Taylor,  Bayard,  286,  343 
Taylor,  J.  Orville,  199 
Taylor,  William.  9,  145,  146-148, 

163,  164,  194,  196 
Texte,  Joseph,  6,  28,  32,  46,  47, 

67,  120 
Thatcher,  Samuel  C,  24,  143 
Tholuck,  Friedrich  A.  G.,  301 
Thomasius,  Christian,  29 
Thorndike,  Israel,  256 
Thucydides,  317 
Thrale,      Mrs.      Hester     Lynch 

(Mrs.   Gabriel   Piozzi),  8 
Ticknor,  George,  23,  34,  60,  143, 

148,    177,    184,   251-256,   258, 

263,  268,  269,  323 
Ticck,  Christian  F.,  71 
Tieck,     Ludvvig,     117,     164,    175, 

201,  206,  211.  213,  224,  242, 

249,    309,    314.   335 
Tilly,  Comte  de,  55 
Torrey,  J.,   278 
Toussenel,  Theodore,   127 
Tudor,   William,  Jr.,    143,    144 
Tiirkheim,  Baron  von,  56 

Uhland,   Ludvvig,   175,   282,   283, 
312,  333 


Unger,  Karoline,  138 

Vanderbourg,  Martin  de,  15,  32 
Vapereau,  Louis   G,   117 
Varnhagen  von  Ense,  K.  A.,  196 
Varnhagen      von      Ense,      Frau 

Rahel   Levin,  55,  201 
Vatke,  Johann  K.  W,  320 
Vermenoux,   Mme.,  30 
Verney,  Valery,  126 
Viereck,   L.,    16,    18,  21 
Vigee-Le  Brun,  Mme.  Elisabeth, 

71,  72 
Vigny,  Alfred   de,   123 
Villers,  Charles  D.  de,  6,  23,  28, 

33-34,  45,  46 
Vinet,  A.  R.,  117 
Vitry,  Aubert  de,   134 
Voght,   Baron   Gaspard   von,  68 
Voltaire  (F.  M.  Arouet),  27,  30, 

58,  67,  70,  79,  86,  92,  98,  136, 

167,   225,   239,  341 
Voss,  Johann  H.,  55,  147,  156 
Vulpius,   C.   A.,   188 

Wagner,   Richard,  137,  232,  236, 

307 
Walker,  Henry  A.,  320 
Walzel,   Oscar   Felix,  66 
Warren,   Joseph,   272 
Weber,    Karl    Maria   von,   306 
Weddigen,  Otto,   186 
Weiss,    Jean    J.,    78 
Weiss,  John,  297,  318,  319,  320 
Wergeland,  Henrik  A.,  186 
Werner,  Zacharias,  72,   146,  225 
Wesselhoeft,  Mrs.  Minna,  312 
Whewell,   William,  250 
Whipple.  E.  P.,  287 
White,  Horatio  S.,  19 
Whitman,  Mrs.  Sarah,  283,  332- 

334 
Wieland,   Christoph   M.,  5,  8,  9, 

10,  30.  31.  32,  44,  50,  57,  69, 
90.    117,    129.    146,    147,    175. 
T82,  188,  241 
Wilkens,   Frederick  H.,  22 


358 


Index 


Willard,  Sidney,  21,  143 
Willich,  Dr.,  163 
Willm,  Josef,  133 
Willoughby,  L.  A.,  246 
Winer,  Georg  B.,  276 
Wohlfahrt,  Heinrich,  306 
Wolf,  J.  C,  307 
Wolff,  Albert,  54,  57,  261 
Wolff,  Friedrich  A.,  123 
Wolzogen,    Frau    Karoline    von, 
45,   57,  61 


Woodhouselee,  Lord  (Alexan- 
der F.  Tytler),  151 

Wordsworth,  William,  9,  150, 
159,    173,   188,  211,  216,  326 

Zeiger,  Theodor,  11,  187 
Zelter,  K.  F.,  55,  148,   149,  201, 

223,   291 
Zimmermann,  J.  G.,  239 
Zschokke,    Heinrich,    188,   343 
Zumpt,  Karl  G.,  267 


AUG  2  9  1983 

DATE  DUE 

MA 

(      1   1PRR 

S861  8 

[  AVW  ao3a 

%rf>£ 

bJ^w« 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  US    A. 

3   1970  00313  5206 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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